Sonya Blade

Sonya Blade is a character from the Mortal Kombat series.

About Sonya
Lieutenant Sonya Blade is a member of a top United States Special Forces unit. She is a sternly beautiful, tough-as-nails lieutenant. Her impulsiveness is catalyzed by her superior and good friend Major Jackson "Jax" Briggs. Sonya represents a very emancipated and headstrong woman, but for all her stubbornness and pride, she deeply cares about the lives of her friends and comrades. Johnny Cage, her fellow Earthrealm warrior and friend, seems to view her as a romantic interest, but there has been no indications of her feelings for him, if any. She has a long-standing enmity with the thug Kano, who stands for everything Sonya despises.

Storyline
Sonya and her team were in hot pursuit of Kano, the leader of the Black Dragon organization. After he jumped onto a ship, they followed him to a remote island where Shang Tsung's Mortal Kombat tournament was being held. Upon arriving they were ambushed by Tsung's personal guard. To keep her team safe, she agreed to compete in the tournament. Shang Tsung, however, had no intention of fulfilling his end of the bargain. He had her unit killed and, after he was defeated by Liu Kang, took her and Kano prisoner to Outworld to appease the emperor, Shao Kahn.

Sonya was able to send a signal to her superior Jax from Outworld, however, and during the events of Mortal Kombat II he traveled there to find her. Jax made contact with the other Earthrealm warriors, and together they learned of Kahn's scheme to invade Earth. She was later freed and Kano arrested, but as soon as they had passed through the portal to Earth, Kano escaped and ran back into Outworld.

Sonya and Jax now had other things on their minds, however. They tried to warn the United States government of the impending invasion, but their claims went unheeded. As such, they began preparing by themselves for the coming invasion. When the fateful day finally came, Shao Kahn stripped Earthrealm of all human souls, with the exception of a few chosen warriors, one of which was Sonya, who would soon encounter her old nemesis Kano on top of a skyscraper near Kahn's fortress. A fierce battle was waged between the two. Kano gained the upper hand, and kicked Sonya onto a stone gargoyle. Sonya feigned defeat, but when Kano advanced to finish Sonya off, grabbing her by the hair, she performed her most infamous special move: the leg grab, and hurled Kano off the roof to his apparent death, taking a lock of her hair with him.

After her journey into Outworld and Shao Kahn's near destruction of Earth, Sonya became a member of Earth's own Outer World Investigation Agency. The Black Dragon kept crossing her path, however. Its last known member, Jarek, had fled to Edenia while Sonya was chasing him. This lead Sonya and Jax to team up with Raiden and Liu Kang to free that realm from the Fallen Elder God Shinnok's grasp, and to prevent him from coming to Earth. After Shinnok's defeat, in which Jarek had reluctantly participated to save himself, Jarek tried to kill Sonya, but died in the attempt.

Years later, Sonya would once again heed Raiden's call, this time to travel to Outworld after the Deadly Alliance had slain Shao Kahn and Liu Kang. For Sonya, this coincided with her search for two missing OIA agents, Cyrax and Kenshi. She was unable to find them, however, and was killed in a fight with the Deadly Alliance and its minions. The Deadly Alliance's victory was short-lived, as Onaga had been resurrected moments after their victory over Raiden himself, and reclaimed Outworld, as well as the amulet. With his ability to raise the dead at will, he resurrected and enslaved Sonya and her fallen comrades.

Possible future
Although it is indicated in Ermac's Mortal Kombat: Deception ending that they were freed by his and Liu Kang's combined efforts, their fate will be revealed in the upcoming Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.

Memorable moves

 * Energy Rings: Clanging her wrists together she would send out ring-like fireballs that would hit the opponent. (MK, MK3, UMK3, MKT)
 * Leg Grab: Sonya would do a handstand and grab her opponent with her feet and slam them on the ground. One of her classic attacks. (MK, MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK4, MK Gold)
 * Square Wave Flight: She would take off into the air and fly across the screen with a punch to anyone who was in the air.  (MK, MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK4, MK Gold)
 * Inverted Bicycle Kick: Like Liu Kang, Sonya would rise into the air with a series of kicks to the opponent. (MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK4, MK Gold)
 * Air Leg Throw: Using her legs she would toss the opponent to the ground from the air. (MK4, MK Gold)
 * Cartwheel Kick: Sonya would perform a cartwheel at her opponent kicking them on impact. (MK4, MK Gold)
 * Flying Kick: Taking a page out of Liu Kang's book, Sonya would fly across the screen with a kick to the opponent's torso. (MKDA)
 * Kiss Of Death: Sonya would blow a kiss that would stun the opponent.  (MKDA) (Note this move won't work on Kenshi, due to the fact that he is blind).

Fatalities

 * Fiery Kiss of Death: This fatality has been Sonya's trademark fatality ever since MK1. She would blow a flaming kiss in the direction of her opponent, burning him/her alive. (MK, MK3, UMK3, MKT'')
 * Crushing Kiss Of Death: Another variation of this fatality was found in Mortal Kombat 3 in which she would once again blow a kiss and an amazing glowing orb would be hurled towards an opponent, thus crushing the opponent and leaving behind a pile of blood and bones. (MK3, UMK3, MKT'')
 * Slicing Kiss of Death: The kiss returns with a different style. She conjures an energy ball that destroys the opponents upper torso once it makes contact.  (MK4)
 * Death Splits: Sonya performs her leg grab trademark move and grabs her opponent with her legs, holding them high momentarily before ripping the body apart by splitting her legs. (MK4)
 * Poisonous Kiss of Death: The kiss once again returns and this time, with a sadistic new style. Sonya exhales a mystical poisonous mist at her opponent, causing him/her to choke and vomit organs, food and blood. Sonya then jumps in the air and crushes her opponent's head with her feet. (MKDA)

Other finishers

 * Monkey Tricks: As a Friendship, Sonya dances. (MK3)
 * Secret Garden: As a Friendship, Sonya would salute and flowers would grow all over the floor. (UMK3, MKT)
 * Hawk: As an Animality, Sonya turned into a giant hawk and carried the opponent into the air and diced them to pieces. (MK3, UMK3, MKT)

Movie appearance
Sonya appears in both Mortal Kombat movies as one of the leading characters. In the first movie, played by Bridgette Wilson, she defeats and kills Kano (her only solo fight before getting captured by Shang Tsung towards the end). In the second movie, played by Sandra Hess, she defeats Mileena and Cyrax in separate battles, and later kills Ermac during the final battle.

Trivia

 * She was partially inspired by the karate champion and movie actress Cynthia Rothrock.
 * Sonya was named after one of Boon's sisters. He confirms this in a video interview in the special edition of Deception.
 * Her known relatives are Major Herman Blade (father), Erica Blade (mother), and Daniel Blade (twin brother, deceased).
 * Sonya almost didn't make it into Mortal Kombat. Originally, Kurtis Stryker, who later debuted in MK3 (although, at the time, the name was given to the character who would eventually be called Jax in MKII) used her storyline, but he was dropped and Sonya created to add a female character to an otherwise all-male cast.
 * Sonya was revealed to be one of Ed Boon's favorite characters during an interview around the time Mortal Kombat 3 came out. Boon stated that she was not only one of the strongest, but also one of the most popular characters of the series.
 * Sonya and Kano were the first MK3 characters to be confirmed.
 * Originally, Mortal Kombat: Special Forces was to have both Jax and Sonya as playable characters; however, Sonya's part was dropped due to deadline issues. In early shots of Special Forces at the time when Sonya was still in the game, it listed her code name as "Panther"
 * Sonya was originally going to fight Jade during the first movie in a secret arena, but the scene was cut from the shooting script and never filmed.
 * In Malibu Comics' non-canon Mortal Kombat series, Sonya was kidnapped, and hypnotized by Reptile into marrying Shao Kahn. Their marriage would have opened the barriers of the two worlds (Outworld and Earth) and Kahn would had been able to take Earth as his own. The wedding was stopped during a battle involving the entire cast of the first two games.