Mileena

Origin

Mileena was magically created by Shao Kahn’s sorcerers to be Kitana’s “twin” sister. She was not only one of Shao Kahn’s personal assassins, but she was also tasked with keeping an eye on her “sister.” Although Mileena was always jealous of Kitana’s beauty and wanted her birthright for her own.

When Kitana discovered the truth about her parents, Shao Kahn feared for the worst and sent Mileena to spy on her. She discovered that Kitana was conspiring with the Earth warriors and attacked her, in which she died.

She descended to the Netherealm where Shinnok rules. When Shao Kahn tried to resurrect her, Shinnok allowed her to leave with the ability to read Kitana’s thoughts. After Shao Kahn’s invasion failed, Shinnok summoned her back to the Netherealm.

During Shinnok’s assault on the Heavens, Shinnok resurrected Mileena in return for her aid. She used this opportunity to attack Kitana and prove her superiority, however she was defeated and locked in an Edenian dungeon.

When Onaga returned, Baraka freed Mileena and Onaga ordered her to take the place of her deceased sister and control her armies, even fooling the remaining Earth warriors. Taking her own actions, she stormed Shao Kahn’s fortress and took it over. However her rule over Outworld was short-lived as Shao Kahn, Shang Tsung, and Goro stormed the fortress. Mileena surrendered and Shao Kahn sent her to retrieve Shujunko in hopes of using him to gain Onaga as an ally.

Comics

Mileena always wanted to be beautiful. Shao Kahn offered a beauty for her instead of her service for him. He gave her Kitana’s looks. She tried to kill the original Kung Lao, but she fell in love with him. She failed in her task. Shao Kahn wanted revenge and deformed her face. She has big and fearsome teeth now.

Characteristics

• Height: 5’9″
• Weight: 128 lbs
• Nationality: Outworlder
• Martial Art: Mian Chuan and Ying Yeung
• Alignment: Evil

Appearance

Originally, as with all MK female ninjas, Mileena wore a tight bodysuit (and mask), with her uniform being colored in shades of magenta. Later on, her costumes changed, some of them rather loose, but usually more revealing than Kitana’s. In terms of physical features, she is identical to Kitana except her face, as her visage is twisted by the Tarkatan DNA flowing in her veins, giving her a large mouth rimmed with long, sharp teeth and and orange sharp eyes much like Baraka.

In Deception, she compensates for this by wearing revealing apparel to show off more of her lascivious physique, wearing a veil to keep her face hidden.

In Mortal Kombat (2011), she boasts an even more revealing outfit, much like her alternate costume in Deception and her eyes are Tarkatan-like. In Kitana’s part of the Story Mode, Mileena’s appearance when Kitana encounters her in Shang Tsung’s Flesh Pits showed Mileena with Tarkatan teeth and wearing nothing but bandages on parts of her body giving a half-naked appearance.

Appearances

• Mortal Kombat II
• Ultimate Mortal Kombat
• Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
• Mortal Kombat Trilogy
• Mortal Kombat Gold
• Mortal Kombat Advance
• MK: Deception
• Playboy
• MK: Unchained
• MK: Shaolin Monks
• MK: Armageddon
• Mortal Kombat (2011)
• Mortal Kombat X
• Mortal Kombat 11 (Kombat Pack 2 DLC)

Combat characteristics

Powers and abilities

Being Kitana’s clone, Mileena possesses equal combat strength, aptitude and agility. What separates her from Kitana, though, is her weapon of choice as well as her secret weapon. She displays sufficient skill with the sai as much as Kitana does with her fans. Her secret weapon, however, is her Tarkatan blood.

As shown in Mortal Kombat (2011), Mileena possesses a pink mystical flame and this appears when she executes her signature moves, including the Rolling Thunder, Soaring Sai and Kick from Above.

Signature moves

• Soaring Sai: Mileena throws two sais, charged with purple energy, at her opponent. In the older games (and MK 2011), it was a charged move and could be performed in mid-air. In MK 2011 this is called Sai Blast. (MKII, UMK3, MKT, MKG, MK:D, MK:A, MK 2011)
  • The enhanced version is called Sai Bursts. She fires one Sai at the opponent, and then the second Sai.
• Kick From Above: Mileena teleports and quickly hits her opponent from above with a jump kick. In MK 2011 this is called Teleport Drop. (MKII, UMK3, MKT, MKG, MK:SM, MK:D, MK:A, MK 2011)
  • The enhanced version is called Tricky Teleport. She teleports again and hits a second kick to the opponent from the other side.
• Rolling Thunder: Mileena tucks into a ball and rolls toward her opponent knocking them off of their feet. In MK 2011 this is called Ball Roll. (MKII, UMK3, MKT, MKG, MK:SM, MK:D, MK:A, MK 2011)
  • The enhanced version is called Smashing Roll. Mileena will leap up in a ball first and then roll into the opponent.
• Leaping Neckbite: Mileena leaps onto her opponent’s chest and begins eating away their face or neck. Also, if the opponent has a sai lodged in their neck before Mileena performs this move, she’ll pull out the sai and stab them repeatedly. (MK 2011)
  • The enhanced version is called Leaping Lunch. After Mileena finishes biting (or stabbing) the opponent, she will kick them away.

• X-Ray Move – Femme Fatale: Mileena grabs hold of her opponent, and in an homage to her MKII Fatality, she rapidly stabs her opponent’s torso with her sais, breaking their ribs and damaging their innards. She then knees them in the face, breaking their skull. (MK 2011)

Other moves

• Throw: Mileena grabs her opponent, thrusts herself into the air, doing a handstand on their shoulders, then swings herself back down, kicking them in the stomach. She then either repeats the move, knocking the opponent to the floor, or she flips herself completed over their head and kicks them in the back, knocking them to the ground. (MK 2011)
• Leaping Sai: Mileena jumps into the air and stabs her opponent in the shoulder with one of her sais. (MK 2011)
• Sai impale: Mileena stabs her sai into her opponent’s stomach. (MK 2011)
• Splits: Mileena does a split kick that hits her opponent in the head. (MK 2011)

Fatalities

• Sai Stabs: Mileena pulls her Sais out and stabs her opponent to death. In Shaolin Monks, after stabbing them, she delivers a powerful kick which sends them flying across the arena. (MKII, MK:SM)
• Man Eater: Her most well-known fatality. Mileena removes her mask and literally inhales her opponent. She then turns to the other side and regurgitates a torrent of bones onto the ground. (MKII, UMK3, MKT)
• Nail Shooter: Mileena removes her mask and fills her mouth with a bottle full of nails. She then unleashes a deadly barrage upon her helpless foe. (UMK3, MKT, MKG)
• Sai-Anara: Mileena throws a number of sais at her opponent, hitting all areas of the body. Her final throw ends up in her victim’s head. This fatality is almost an exact duplicate of Reiko’s Ninja Star fatality. (MKG)
• Ferocious Bite: Mileena removes her veil, then charges at the opponent and bites into their neck. She then tears the head off with her teeth and spits it out on the floor behind her. She then grins rather grotesquely (yet apparently pleased), going “Mmmmmm….” before laughing maniacally. (MK:D)
• Sai Lodge: Mileena throws her sais into the air and kicks them towards her opponent. The sais drive into the enemy’s shoulders, killing them. (MK:D)
• Boss Fatality: She assists Jade in this Fatality. Jade sweeps the enemy to the ground with her Bojutsu, Mileena then throws her Sai into the opponents palm. Jade then slams her Bojutsu in his face, eventually crushing it. (MK:SM)
• Be Mine: Mileena throws both of her sais into the opponent’s torso. She walks over to them and seductively embraces them, only to rip their head off and chew on it. She then throws it to the ground and moans positively. (MK 2011)
• Rip Off: Mileena hurls both of her sais, one at a time, into her opponent’s feet. She then rips off their body from their upper legs. (MK 2011)

Other finishers

• Friendship #1: The Planter: Mileena plants a seed that turns into a flower. (MKII)
• Friendship #2: Cute Face: Mileena removes her mask and gazes into a mirror, and the mirror shatters. Shao Kahn then says “Pretty.” (UMK3, MKT)
• Animality: Stinky Murder: Turning into a skunk, Mileena sprays the opponent to death. (UMK3, MKT)
• Hara-Kiri: Brain Surgery: Mileena drives her sais into her own head sideways. (MK:D)
• Babality: Mileena hisses and attempts to attack her opponent, but trips and starts crying. (MK 2011)

Movie and TV appearances

In Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Mileena (played by Dana Hee) served as an assassin for Shao Kahn. She fought Sonya Blade, who mistook Mileena for Kitana. Sonya killed Mileena, causing the dragon tattoo on Mileena’s shoulder to come to life and quickly disappear. The similar appearances of Mileena and Kitana are the only connections between the two characters that the film makes. Mileena’s name is never mentioned in the film, when Sonya notices that Raiden shares the same dragon tattoo as both Mileena and Cyrax later in the film, she refers to them only as “a robot and a woman” who both tried to kill her. However, the end credits identify her as Mileena. Appropriately, Dana Hee was the stunt double for Talisa Soto (Kitana) in both movies.

Mileena appeared in one episode of the television series Mortal Kombat: Conquest, in which she had no initial relation to Kitana and was here depicted as a repulsive-looking Outworld assassin (from an unknown realm) sent by Shao Kahn to (unsuccessfully) kill Kung Lao (whom she develops feelings for), with a magic spell placed over her to give her Kitana’s beautiful face, which she loved (for a second, he called her his “new daughter” before saying that her beauty was temporary and if she failed he would take it away); as punishment for her taking too much time in her mission, Kahn allows her to keep her beauty with the exception of making her teeth more exaggerated and pointy and making her voice sound like that of an old woman, her outer beauty to remind her of trying to be something that she is not. As giving her the face with fangs and the haggish voice makes her ugliness much more appalling, she starts to wear her signature mask, which Kahn gives her before ordering his guards to take her away. She was portrayed by Megan Brown in both forms, and by Audie England in the form of Kitana.

In Mortal Kombat: Legacy, Mileena (played by Jolene Tran) is very different from her other iterations in that when Kitana was still a baby, Mileena was created to give Shao Khan a daughter who wouldn’t hate him when she found out he killed King Jerrod, Kitana’s biological father and Sindel’s first husband. With this change, neither Kitana nor Mileena know they aren’t actually sisters. Another big difference comes in the form of Mileena’s mouth. It appears normal most of the time, changing to her Tarkatan teeth at random, which also causes fits of rage. The girls grew up believing themselves to be sisters under Shao Khan’s parenting after Sindel sacrificed herself to protect Kitana’s soul. They soon were being influenced at a very young age to distrust each other by Kahn and to act as his warriors, not his children. Mileena and Kitana are sent on a mission to first kill the impostors and then the real King Jerrod. Kitana first interacts with the real Jerrod, allowing Mileena to strike him fatally with a sai throw. Mileena walks away from her sister and the dying king after retrieving her weapon, then shoots her sister a smirk. Mileena is seen wearing a purple outfit that covers her full body and is shown to already be able to throw her sais with her classic purple ki at a young age. Mileena also has facial scaring similar to a Glasgow smile on her cheeks due to her mouth’s form changing.