I personally think that these two looks worked very well for Kitana. Her MK2 (as simplistic as it was, was also good and her MKDA primary was a big step up from her UMK3/MKG look which I hate on her).





Her MKvsDC look was just not good. There's nothing about it that's new and works well. Everything about it has either been done with her before, or looks awful.

Well wait. You like the hair and you like the colors...so what specifically do you not like about it?

Kitana's costumes have largely been a mixed bag. From MK3 up to MKDA, she was stuck in a perennial blue corseted leotard. MK:SM and MKvsDCU are the first games to deviate from that look, with mixed results.

The MK vs. DCU look isn't terrible, per say. But there are serious design flaws in Kitana's model. Many commented upon her render's release that her head shape was funky and her eyes were lopsided. I don't know if these flaws translated into her in-game model, but she received quite a disappointing render with an awkward pose. In retrospect, I can appreciate the efforts of the design team to soften her look as it apparently was important to soften Kitana's character in this game. Bleargh.

The MK:SM is amazing! It's edgy, there's a great attention to detail on her gloves, boots, and body suit, they mixed black and blue well, and she looks deadly, sleek, and ninja-like. As we all know, her look was the only thing Kitana had going for her in that game. :(

Anyone else notice that Kitana has put on the pounds and/or muscle since her debut in MKII? Katalin Zaminar is not a bulky martial artist (and by no means is Becky Gable), but you can definitely see a weight increase from MKII to MK4 and to the modern MKDA model. I definitely prefer my Kitana to be more slender. It fits her image as a ninja assassin better IMO.

And I never cared for her alternate MKDA look. I don't understand what it has to do with anything related Kitana...it's not something a lead army general would wear nor is it a princess garb...it's just sort of...exists.

It's not really that Kitana has gotten bulky, it's just that there were NO skinny characters in the Deadly Alliance/Deception/Armageddon graphics engine. Everyone had exaggerated proportions.
She's a little slimmer in MK vs DCU but I would agree it's still not slim enough for how I picture Kitana either. And the fat head and big round doe eyes just don't line up with the way Kitana's face has looked in the past..

Her physique is perfect in her MKSM render. She was a little weird looking in-game and in the FMVs, but then again, so was everyone else, but that render is just perfect for Kitana. She's slim, she's beautiful, she's got a great design and she looks deadly dangerous as well. And it's the perfect combination for Kitana.

i like kitana being a little thicker actually. not like j. lo booty thick but i think she should be a little bigger than mileena, jade, tanya, sindel, and sonya. just my personal preference.

lol i know it seems like i don't have anything to complain about with the MKSM outfit but i hate the design. the entire thing just looks bad to me, i prefer the small flower designs from the MK vs DCU one as opposed to the kind of serated ones in MKSM. but i guess since she's evil for a chunck of that game it works. plus the boots look nice but i'm not a fan of any fighting game character that wears heels out side of Anna from tekken.

as far as the color, the shade of blue and the contrast of black works better than the MK vs DCU one which has too much black in the body suit IMO. also her shade of blue is too light. i prefer to press start and play with the darker shade.

if they could get those stupid hair ribbons to act right i'd even like those. i also like her hair in this game but to be fair the only time i didn't like her hair was in MK3-MKG. i would like to see her go back to her MKII hair though, like mileena's hair in her MKD alt. but i think most people (myself included) are fond of her super dooper long hair.

MKA > MKII > MKDA > MK vs DCU > MKSM > MK3 as far as her look goes.

I think for me, I would rank her appearance as:

MKSM > MKDA Alt > MKDA Primary > MKII > UMK3 > MKG > MKvsDC

The first three are pretty tied, followed closely by MKII. UMK3 and G hang back and I just really can't like the DC costume. It just doesn't do anything for me, personally, but to each his or her own.

my first three are pretty tied also. they're just shy of each other. and depeding on the day i could switch those three around lol. but those are the three i like the best. i kind of hated that MK3/MKG suit. that exposed chest is what does it i think. which is why i probably don't like how exposed her front is in MKSM.

when i first saw her MKvsDCU one it was pretty much at the bottom but over time i guess i've learned to like it for whatever reason. it might have more to do with me enjoying kitana in the game and not particularly the suit though. like the reason the MKII suit is so high is because of nostalgia. although like you said as simple as it was it effective.

Mega cleavage doesn't really scream Princess, I guess. Then again, a leotard for a Queen and belly-tops for Special Forces Officer? That's video-game pin-ups I guess. I think the only character in MK that revealing attire really and truly suits is Mileena. That just works for her, it's like 'Look at my body, not my face' I suppose. Kitana should probably be the opposite, covered, yet still sexy. It could be subtle, like her MKDA Alt, very subtle differences but effective in adding a regal look to her.

Around the time of MKII, Kitana was primarily an assasin, so that wasn't really fitting, but she's reclaimed her status since then so a more sophisticated look would be appropriate while still retaining her deadly elegance.

i like to think that the leotard is sindel's battle suit. in my mind she looks like a queen whenever she's not in battle. with sonya i just assume she's in a hurry to help out the other earthrealm warriors and doesn't think about putting on a different shirt lol.

but yeah, that's why i like her MKA alt. if was a fantastic melding of her princess and warrior aspects.

It's a good way of looking at it. I do like the leotard, Sindel has one of the more fascinating looks in MK and the leotard adds to it. Plus, as a battle suit, it provides maximum flexibility so in a very, very small way it is slightly practical. Ah well, it looks awesome, and that's all that matters in a game. Same with Kitana's outfits.

I don't know if it was a funky PAL conversion, or a broken machine, but I remember seeing MKII arcades at the time that made Kitana look purple and Mileena look pink. So, maybe because of that, I rather like the purple. (Late and indirect commentary again, yes.)

I'm sure there's another reason blue is so pretty, but I've had a surprising number of people use 'she's a Sub-Zero analogue' as an anti-purple argument, which strikes me as... odd.

Sure there's some nice royal blues, but a regal purple as the Edenian national colour (ie; Rain, Sindel...) seems rather nice, to me. I feel purple somehow embodies something about that realm more than the terrestrial blue. And she's got her kingdom, so get rid of the mask, and start dressing her like a princess! A princess who has access to the finest silks and designs Edenia has to offer -- instead of one-colour Outworld unitards!


Maybe something with more layers (and a bit more regal) in a purple or blue motiff.

I might've mentioned Taki as the vague direction for an action suit, but we've already seen the ultimate compromise - complete with wonderful SC-esque decoration - drawn by JAX007.


(I forgot about the other design. That kinda renders the Setsuka example void).

The bodysuit just strikes me as so bland and common.
That is, when it isn't the Sindel variation, which seems to fluctuate between eighties punk groupie or Japanese pink box. Stripper Queen, hooooh! There's no reason warrior royalty can't be practical and stylish.

purple doesn't by any means look bad on her. i'm just so used to blue. do blue and purple go together?


i reaaaaaaly like that first design. where she's holding the fan. something like that in the game would be fantastic.

that other one seems too...asiany? i'll go with that.

I'm no interior designer, but I think you've got to pick a blue OR a purple, and go with it. I guess you could have a purple warrior version, and a royal blue (and white?) robe version.

Apart from liking purple as a regal and representative colour of Edenia, I guess the big attraction to me is that it sort of sets her aside from Sub-Zero in a groupshot of lead protagonists. You can line up the major heroes and start to appreciate MK's sentai-esque penchant for multi-colours.

EDIT: Maybe on the first outfit the tights could be blue with a purple, almost black, bustier?

Given the precedent of the series, I can't say I see an Asian motiff as a negative. I guess I sort of think of Edenia as a blend between Asian and European sensibilities. To that end, I'd probably have the robe a little less tapered, and a bit more layered. I probably prefer a Eurasian Kitana, too.

Blue and purple don't mix well together. Purple does suit Kitana, and so does blue, so maybe since alternate costumes are apart of MK (or at least they should be, thank you very much DC) we could get one of each.

The sketches above are some of my favourite Kitana concepts I've seen. Particularly the one on the left, as the one on the right reminds me too much of Mileena, and I think those two should be distanced as much as possible in their designs.

I think a little less clevage and leg would not only represent the character better, but also distance her even more than she already is. As it stands, I don't really see the parallel between harem dancer and sexed up geisha, but something a little more substantial in it's layers would no doubt help.

I'm thinking a robe that, for lack of better reference, could at least function similarly to an Aikido or Kendo outfit (in the interaction with the legs, at least). Not necessarily bulky, but more substantial and covering.

Personally, I'm rather partial to the color indigo, conveniently located right between blue and purple on the ol' spectrum, as regards "which color looks best on Kitana".

I love the way people bring up a subject originally, then refuse to address it later. The subject actually does have relevance to Kitana's treatment in the story, because if Sonya is not the most important female character, and Kitana is, therefore Kitana obviously needs to take a higher priority, which feeds straight into the point of her being mistreating by being used as a McGuffin.

I'm sorry I'm not going to agree with everyone who "dropped the subject." Boo-hoo. If you don't want to talk about it, feel free to avoid the subject/topic. I feel that it has bearing on Kitana's relevance to the series, and is therefore worth discussing. I agree that there shouldn't be a flame war, but why not discuss the matter civilly? That's like banning foreign movies because the majority of people are too lazy/stupid to read subtitles.

Anyway, as far as costumes for Kitana go:

I really like the MK: Shaolin Monks one. That is quite splendid indeed. It wouldn't work now, though. It's far too "assassin-like," and I could not imagine a representative of the throne of Edenia wearing it unless she was about to be involved in a highly publicised scandal.

As I suggested earlier, I would not mind a departure from the blue side of things. People associate the colour with her, true, but that might be a part of the problem that faces her character's freshness. Mortal Kombat is hopefully going to get darker, and with graphics becoming better and better, colour palettes do not need to be as dynamic. Characters do not need to be represented by a colour.

If Kitana adopted something red, black or gold, I could see it being a more deadly, different and intriguing look for her character. Kitana should probably be three-quarters classy and one-quarter sexy. As far as her build goes -- I've always thought of her as being petite. More so than a Sonya Blade, for instance. Sonya is a military girl, with a human metabolism and such. I imagine her as needing some bulk to her (not in an unattractive way, or anything), for strength, at the very least. Kitana, on the other hand, could easily be explained as a more cerebral martial artist (she's had 10,000 to practice her craft), and as an Edenian, there is something more "alien" about her. Advanced martial arts skilled could very easily explain how a petite girl could kick a giant demon's ass, for example.

The Team is just doing great it is just the fact that Kitana sucks and they dont want to make you angry by letting her lives .

Sonya FTW !!

See, that might be funny if it weren't for Kitana consciously and consistently being brought back and used in the storyline.

i think it's relevant too actually.

but i think that they are equally as important. kitana is CLEARLY more involved in the story. i don't know how that subject is even debatable. however sonya IS more consistant. i don't see how this is debatable either. i just it all comes down to which one is more important story or consistancy. and in my opinion they're both equally as important. even if sonya only ever fights kano she's been in almost every game from the get go. even if kitana does have more connection to the boss and has more reasons to fight the bigger baddies she usually has to fight them half a year later in a re released version of the game.

also since sonya came first i think she's more nostalgic but JUST AS ICONIC as kitana. MK fans in general will probably vote sonya into a game before kitana simply because she was there first. even if it was just for one game she has senior status.

i like to think of them as chun-li and cammy.

chun-li=sonya
cammy=kitana

chun li will almost always be there playable in the game if only because the fans expect. not just chun-li fan but street fighter fans in general.

cammy will probably not make it in, even though she has a bigger connection to bison the constant main villian of the story.

but basically i'm saying in MK you can be a main character in two ways. by being an important part of the story and by being consistantly playable.

I agree 100%! I've always viewed Sonya growing up as an army brat, with her entire family moving from one military base to the next. I would think her fighting style would be almost more masculine, perhaps utilizing blows that rely on upper body strength rather than kicks. But they gave Sonya Tae Kwon Do in MK:DA so I guess that idea's scrapped. Personally, I think it makes more sense that Sonya would have more of a brawler style honed from her years sparring and learning from other military personnel.

Kitana, on the other hand, has that sort of alien quality to her, and her martial arts experience would lend itself to more graceful and cerebral moves. I didn't see that reflected in her Eagle Claw or Ba Gua stances all that much. They just seemed awkward and ungainly.

i havent had time to actually play story mode yet. i pretty much dont care for the MK story since MK3.

i will some day play story mode and ill read your first post fully.

until then XIA be happy they FINALLY made Kitana a top Tier in a MK game again.

she was a crap fighter in MKDA-MKA but Finally Shes a killer fighter again.

Some people don't give a crap about "tiers". I enjoyed playing as Kitana in DA and Armageddon.

i did too actually. i didn't think mortal kombat had any real tiers anyway. pretty much everyone was equally as awful in the past games as far as i could tell.