Well that's the weirdest thing I've seen all week.

I mean, even in the other pictures below that one, you can see white people who didn't turn brown from tanning, they turned orange.
At any rate, tans aren't permanent and going that dark requires an obsessive dedication that someone of Jade's lifestyle just wouldn't have time for. The creators obviously haven't made a deliberate effort to tell us she's the kind of person who cares about getting a tan like, say, Johnny Cage would be, so I think it's safe to assume her skin color is a natural, static state.

Jade is African-American-Edenian, baby!









Wait...Wuhhhhhh???








In all seriousness, I see Jade as being a dark/black-skinned Edenian. Since Edenians are descended from the gods, perhaps Edenians of different skin colors represent lineages from certain gods.

As a character, I do like Jade, but she really needs to be better defined and fleshed out. I wouldn't want her to stay as a "wedge" character. MK 2011's story didn't exactly do anything to set her in a good direction. I personally see Jade as being older than Kitana and generally being a more solitary character.

I do like her MK: Deception outfits, and when I play as her in MK 2011, I prefer using her MK2 outfit. Gameplay-wise, she was always a bit tough to fight against in UMK3's/MKT's arcade mode. I wish her projectiles in MK 2011 had a faster start-up.

I want to know what exactly happened to Jade's parents. I feel like exploring her roots a bit (somehow) can help determine what sort of direction she can go in. I also have to wonder about her rivalry with Tanya. Is it just a "loyalist vs. traitor" dynamic or is there something deeper?

Well, those are all my thoughts for right now.

On Jade's race, in real life skin color's pigmentation varies from location to protect from the sun through many thousand generations of births. Edenia already shows sections that get more direct sun such as "Jade's Desert" (Uh when it was in Edenia I mean), if anything it shows Edenia is not boring in landscape.

Story wise I'm not concerned about whatever goofy-ass wacky hilarious Saturday morning style adventure Netherrealm Studios comes up with anymore so all else I can add is I likey the tan chicks

I can't believe this is being argued. If you ask me, let people think whatever they want about this topic. Truth is, Jade is established Asian by her race.

For perspective: there are Caucasians in the United States, even though they are not from Caucasia. How can that be? The name of the race only originates from that location but the word (etymology aside) is not tied to a location, in the sense that the Caucasians live in USA too. And Caucasia is a region nearby Sochi, so Britons don't even necessarily come from there. By the same logic, Asian-looking people can exist in Edenia as well.

There are syndromes named after a location too, yet it doesn't mean that you have to have connections with some location in order to ail one.

Debates like these frequently show that many people seem to think that the various ethnicities only differ from one another in skin color, and not also facial features. Some people even think Kratos or the Joker could be non-white, because they're albinos, and some people can't even tell an albino's race. I could tell a burned person's race. Freddy Krueger for instance is definitely a white guy, as his facial features, despite being burned, still resemble those of a white guy, and even if they didn't, there'd still be the voice.


I consider Jade Latina. In MKD, at least. Her facial features in that game resembled that of a Latina. I thought she looked like a Latina in the latest game too, but I admit she looked like she could also be a lighter-skinned black gal. Still, I've seen Latinas that closely resemble the latest game's Jade, facially speaking.

In the old games, it was harder to tell. The younger Sub-Zero is clearly Asian in his MK2 ending, but during gameplay, and on his character select pic, he's white. So my point is, as she was just a palette swap of Kitana and Mileena, who were obviously white, of course Jade would look exactly like them, even her eyes would look like theirs, and it's probably where the idea of her being tanned comes from. That however didn't prove for sure that she was just tanned.

There remains some uncertainties, that much is certain, but I have no doubt that Jade in the modern games is not, in anyway, white. Or Asian, as her facial features have yet to resemble an Asian gal's. The movies don't count.

The thing is, Latinos/Latinas are quite diverse. Some have more European ancestry (largely Spanish), some have more Sub-Saharan African ancestry, and others have more Amerindian ancestry.

She has indeed looked like a Latina as well. My foremost point was, in case you couldn't tell, that you still can call her Asian/Latina/whatever by her looks despite her otherwordly origins in the game fiction. As to what comes to her race in the latest game, I didn't intend that she would look like e.g. Chinese but more like a Filipina. See, a typical Latina is much paler than that seeing the whole term derives from the South European countries with Latin roots language-wise. Thereafter the Latin people have of course mixed a lot in the Americas but we're talking about the average looks now. When you put it that way – she does resemble a well-tanned Latina, but to many she is rather a tanned 'green' Kitana, e.g. a Filipina.

Even Kitana bears white features, and she is viewed as Asian – blame the face modeler. Maybe Kitana is intended to look like part-white and Jade like another mixture.
What's more, the Amerindians have similar attributes to the people of Asia because the Amerindians came from Asia originally, after all. To clarify, my point was to end the argument of "Can Jade be considered Asian, Latina or such albeit she is from Edenia?" so we could just move on with this.

This topic has to be one of the all-time most ridiculous MK debated points in the history of the series. Jade is a fictional character from a fictional fantasy realm and while yes there are some pretty blatant parallels to real world ethnicities in her design: A. Jade's ethnic traits fluctuate too much to be definitive (varying skin tone, facial characteristics) based upon whatever game she's in. B. She's not obligated to be defined by real-world geographical ethnicity.

I mean obviously she's "non-white" under the derivative real-world lens but trying to discern anything beyond that is guesswork. I'm perfectly content with the "Dark-skinned Edenian" definition just like Kitana is "Light-skinned Edenian".

Yes, she can be. Again, tying the ethnicity to a geographical situation and using that as a basis against people's willingness to compare her with her real world counterparts is not valid as deliberately explained in my first post of this thread. To further elaborate my statement why the etymology based on geography doesn't moot categorizing a foreign-realm character in Mortal Kombat; there is for example this thing called Helsinki syndrome (or Stockholm syndrome.) Can it be used to diagnose an infernal Mortal Kombat character, or are you supposed to create new terminology for this case – Nekropolis syndrome, anyone? Let's keep it real here, you don't.The funniest thing is that you are adding to that. If Mortal Kombat will have another movie and the director wants to be close to the original setting; then Jade's (or the actress's) looks become very meaningful. It doesn't help if you only say that "Meh... Cast a native Edenian" because that'd be nonsense. This is an example that allows the use of real world terms with these fictive characters. Your racial separation of the Edenians to dark and light is surely correct but matters little in defining Jade, our subject here.I have similar thoughts on this, considering the constant micro retcons.

My main point is that NRS couldn't decide what "dark-skinned" real world ethnic traits they wanted to stay consist to and thus have completely made trying to determine "Jade's real-world counterparts" utterly futile to figure out. You're not going to solve the puzzle because the pieces weren't provided coherently. It's not "being nitpicky", it's pointing out that NRS couldn't decide what the fuck they were trying to do.

She's a made-up character from a made-up place that has seen different incarnations of her ethnic features based upon each iteration of the game. So again, it's fallacy to try and label her to real world ethnicities. I don't know why this concept is so tough to grasp. It'd be different if NRS actually handled this more deliberately (like using a particular real-world dialect, inflection, or language with Jade) to purposely draw a comparison. Unfortunately, it wasn't considered much seemingly beyond "Jade is brown-skinned and speaks English with an American accent."

That's because the only definition provided as canon has been POOR and inconsistent. If you're worried about having her cast then there's actually plenty of room for interpretation by a producer.

I can't think of a single game or adaptation where Kitana had Asian facial features.

She always either looks white or, in MK4 thru Armageddon, Latina because her face was directly based on Talisa Soto, her movie actress, who is Latina.

Of course the official appearance for Jade is the latest canon one (subject to update), that's the undisputable answer. Nowhere did I write about being nitpicky and yes, I agree, they have toyed around with Jade a lot.

It's not a fallacy to compare her with similar real world citizens. Why would it be? 1) Take a game, 2) observe her and 3) compare that specific Jade with her real world counterparts. Repeat separately with another product.

You are trying to create a juxtaposition where there is none: I do 'grasp' the fact that Jade's racial appearance has been updated numerous times and MK9 might not be the final one either. My point, for the final time, was that you can compare Jade's appearance with a real world race freely at will.

Come on, Mojo6, there's always room for interpretation by a director (less by a producer.) Regardless, they already know what options to rule out already and that's a step forward: everything but the latest canon race of her (MK9), to be strict, depending on the story of course. Specifically what is poor and how? Her official appearance is above, take notes from that.Ok. Maybe it's me but I've always envisioned Kitana more-or-less Oriental. It likely has to do with Liu Kang, her clothing, the fans, the Japanese name origins and this family picture. Raiden, Kenshi and Kuai Liang appear very Caucasian as well albeit, confirmedly, at least Sub-Zero is Oriental (1⁄2).

You're totally right. She's....what did you say...Asian? Right, yeah that's it. Jade's Asian because....I dunno...you say so? I'm going to stop talking to you now, nothing personal. No possible way she's -
North American
or South American


or Australian
or African
or European
Nope. Totally Asian...

...because that's the ONLY possible correct answer here. Nevermind that we're reducing a myriad of ethnicities and cultures of entire continents to a dilluted label.
Or rather, "being Asian" can mean this:
as much as this:

Next you should argue about there really only being one Ninja in the game.

'Twas barely my point. Now you went hankypanky1, never go hankypanky1.

Not to mention that in looser terms: Amerindians are counted as Asian.

Black, white, Asian – this is the full compilation.

Nowhere did I state that there is no possible way she is South American but, first of all; that is not a race and secondly, if you view MK9's Jade as South American – so be it. It's good that you stop there because this was getting ridiculous. Take a chill pill. Whatever debate there was, it's done.

Of whichever race Jade specifically is, it can be estimated from her MK9 appearance solely, and the races exceed their etymological locations.

For the umpteenth time, Jade is not black, white, blue, orange, pink, purple, green, or silver.

She's Edenian.

The Edenians are unique folks certainly, I'll give you that. But there are races within them. Then the talk of "Asian" and whatnot comes into play and in it we use our existing terminology. "Asian" means two things: a denizen of Asia and a race. Darrius is Seidan and yes: black/Negroid.

In the same way, Jade can be Edenian but also Asian. Then you can talk about Edenian-Asian, Edenian-Negroid and Edenian-Caucasian types.

"Edenian" ain't no color I ever heard of.
I checked the Crayola box, Didn't see it in there.

So tell me what color her skin is. I dare you to describe her physical appearance without referring to a goddamn geographical location.

She's got skin changing colors. I mean, she hasn't had a consistent "black" skin tone, let's just say... They can change skin tones.

Yes, Edenians can change colors. Muhaha..

I'm also ignoring my past self in this thread. happy Valentines day yo.

Happy Valentine's Day. If hypothetically Jade was a guard in front of palace gates for an entire summer, she would tan enormously – and non-whites do tan too. With this in mind, there are good explanations for some of the changes in her skin tan available. The separation of the Edenians to dark- and light-skinned individuals hardly suffices as a solution to our subject because, as DG1OA pointed out, there are visible differences between the races beyond the skin color, hence e.g. Edenian-Asian becomes a term.

Dark-skinned.

And if you think "dark-skinned" references a specific location, then you're either severely naive, or just an idiot.

I don't know why people say this. I have to guess they can't actually remember what the sprites look like, or don't ever bother to go to MKWarehouse and check, they just assume they don't match for some reason.

She actually has been approximately the same shade of brown from MK2 all the way to Armageddon. 9 is the only one that's inconsistent. That doesn't mean she keeps changing color all the time, it just means the reboot fucked up in yet another of the many areas it fucked something up.

Although her hair was brown instead of black in MK2...



Oh I'm just happy you gave a straight answer for once. It's the first time I've ever seen you not dodge the issue. As I have pointed out several times in the past, you never seem to get that nobody wants to talk about where she's from, they want to talk about what she looks like and are using racial terms as a shorthand to cover both skintone and facial features.

I know this is directed at Riyakou but honestly I don't have any sort of problem with using general ethnic terms to describe Jade's features and aesthetics. It's when people start asserting that those descriptions are somehow concrete irrefutable evidence that Jade is canon Latina, Asian, etc. that I take exception. Stating that Mk9 Jade "looks like she has similarities to Spanish women because of her copper skin tone and dark hair" is different than claiming "Jade is obviously Spanish."

Don't stretch the facts. My statement was that Jade is what her current MK9 appearance race-wise is after which you started showing all those people from different continents, such as a non-native Australian woman(?). More than that, we both agreed that there is no necessity to go as specific as defining her e.g. Spanish, so that's another piece of your made-up stories.

There is every reason for others to ignore you, if you do that too (willingly and accidentally.) I take it that answering mwgrant0 her over a year old question is not part of your agenda, rather only writing your opinions is.

I gave this answer a million times.

I always give straight answers, you just never want to pay attention. Hell, you're weren't even paying attention with your lat two posts. Had you been paying attention, you would have understood that my stating of Jade being Edenian had nothing to do with location, but merely her identity, which is what I've been stating since the beginning of this thread. Again, you fail to understand that.

Jade's only mean of identity is Edenian. If skin tone is of question, she would be considered dark-skinned, you know, because her skin is dark. Of the two of us, I am the only one that has been giving a straight answer:

Dark-skinned Edenian
Dark-skinned Edenian
Dark-skinned Edenian
Dark-skinned Edenian
Dark-skinned Edenian

It doesn't get anymore straight forward than that. But in all this time, you continue to combat that simple, straight answer. Stop it. It is a battle you cannot win, and not because I'm saying it. You cannot win because you can never make Jade any more than what she is, whether you like it or not.

I believe I've stated this before, but for you I'll state it again: Jade is an Edenian with dark skin. Nothing more, nothing less. Deal with it.





I seriously hope this helps you to finally understand, because I have long since grown tired of trying to get you to understand.

My main interest in Jade lies within how they treat her mysterious Arcade ladder ending. Who is she?