Mileena



My hatred for Kitana consumes my every thought. -- Mortal Kombat: Deception Bio Mileena is a fictional character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. She made her debut in Mortal Kombat II.

About Mileena
Mileena is a clone of Kitana, created by Shang Tsung's sorcery for Shao Kahn, using Tarkatan physiology. Vicious and evil, she despises Kitana, and feels that it is her own right to rule Edenia as Princess in her place. Her fondest wish is to kill her "sister", and claim her existence for her own. Something of an opportunist, she will make use of any chance to seize power that comes within her grasp.

Storyline


After Shao Kahn conquered the realm of Edenia and merged it with Outworld, he decided he would keep the former king's young daughter Kitana alive and raise her as his own. Although Kitana grew up loyal to the emperor, unaware that he had murdered her father, Kahn feared if she should ever discover the truth about her past, she'd turn against him.

Kahn then ordered his sorcerer Shang Tsung to create an evil, vicious, and loyal clone of Kitana who would take her place. Tsung combined Kitana's essence with a Tarkatan's to achieve this purpose. However, something went wrong with the clone's creation and her face deformed into a hideous Tarkatan's mouth. Rather than disposing of her, she was given the name Mileena and introduced as Kitana's twin sister. Instead of replacing Kitana as originally planned, Mileena would be used to watch Kitana and make sure she remained loyal to Kahn.

Kitana and Mileena grew up together as Shao Kahn's personal assassins, even though Mileena secretly harbored a growing bitterness and jealousy towards her "twin", who Kahn favored over others. Also at some time during her life, Mileena became the secret ally and possible lover of a Tarkatan warrior named Baraka. As Kahn feared, Kitana did finally discover the truth about her past and family. Although she continued to feign loyalty to Shao Kahn, she secretly plotted and waited for the right time to overthrow him.

During Mortal Kombat II, Shao Kahn began to grow suspicious of Kitana and Mileena was ordered to watch over her sister. After finding out Kitana was indeed conspiring with the Earthrealm warriors, Mileena attacked Kitana, but Kitana proved to be the superior fighter and killed her. Mileena's essence descended into Netherealm (Mortal Kombat's hell), giving her even more reason to hate her sister.

Damned to the Netherealm, Mileena found herself recruited by the fallen Elder God Shinnok. During Mortal Kombat Trilogy, she was resurrected by Shinnok and sent to Earth to spy for him during Shao Kahn's invasion. She was also granted the ability to read Kitana's thoughts. After Kahn was defeated, Mileena was summoned back to the Netherealm with Noob Saibot, who was also sent to spy on Shao Kahn.

During Mortal Kombat Gold, Mileena assisted in Shinnok's invasion of Edenia. Seeing this as a chance to finally prove she is superior to Kitana, Mileena allowed her sister to escape Shinnok's dungeons. However, Mileena would again be denied. After Shinnok's defeat, she was again bested by Kitana and secretly locked away in an Edenian prison, perhaps in the hope that she would one day reform.

Mileena remained imprisoned for many years, until the Dragon King, Onaga, returned during Mortal Kombat: Deception and began his own invasion of Edenia. Mileena was freed from her prison by Baraka. She joined Onaga, and was ordered to pose as Kitana in order to mislead the princess' armies while Onaga gathered his strength. Mileena accepted, seeing this as a chance to gain some amount of revenge against Kitana. However, as Mileena began her deception, she also began to consider taking control of the armies for herself.

In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Mileena had seized Shao Kahn's fortress using the Edenian forces, all in the 'name of peace'. Though she did this still under the guise of Kitana, she had decided to continue her charade until the Edenian armies were corrupted enough to follow her under her true identity. Though at first confident that Outworld was hers to rule, Mileena soon discovered that Shao Kahn, alongside Goro and Shang Tsung, had mounted an offense against the fortress to re-instate Kahn's rule over Outworld.

At first, Mileena hid in the throne room, and had instructed her mages to cast a defensive spell on the main door. Their magic, however, proved futile against Shao Kahn's brute force, and soon, the former emperor was face to face with Mileena. The mages then stood between the two in a last effort to protect their 'princess', only to be stabbed in the back by her. Revealing her identity to Kahn, Mileena surrenders to him.

Shao Kahn accepts Mileena's surrender, and then commands her to capture Shujinko, who would be used as a bargaining chip in gaining Onaga as an ally. Mileena then sends Shujinko a false invitation, which apparently works, as Shujinko soon finds himself confronted by the dark alliance and quickly imprisoned after being defeated by Mileena herself. However, having tasted power for herself, she is no longer content with being a minion. Deciding that she is destined for greater things, and with Outworld out of her reach, sets her sights on ruling Edenia instead.

She appears in Armageddon's Konquest mode, encountering Taven in the dungeons of Shao Kahn's fortress. She battles the intruder, but ultimately is not successful in preventing his progress.

In Mileena's Armageddon ending, she defeats Blaze, causing herself and her "twin" Kitana to psychically fuse together for a moment. When they separate, Mileena finds that she has taken Kitana's features and become beautiful, while Kitana has been cursed with Mileena's Tarkatan teeth. Mileena is now able to take her rightful place as princess of Edenia. She rules in Kitana's place and locks her "sister" in the Edenian palace dungeon, where Kitana eventually goes insane.

Powers and abilities
Being Kitana's twin, or at least born from her blood, 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. The mutant DNA in her being grants her a hideous visage of a full row of sharp, dagger sized teeth, which she keeps hidden with a veil.

Signature moves

 * Soaring Sai: Mileena's signature move. She throws two sais, charged with purple energy, at her opponent. In the older games, it was a charged move and could be performed in mid-air. (MKII, UMK3, MKT, MKG, MK:D, MK:A)
 * Kick from Above: Mileena slides through the ground and quickly hits her opponent from above with a jump kick. (MKII, UMK3, MKT, MKG, MK:D, MK:A)
 * Rolling Thunder: Mileena tucks into a ball and rolls toward her opponent. If the move is blocked, she rolls up in the air and leaves a huge opening for an uppercut. (MKII, UMK3, MKT, MKG, MK:D, MK:A)

Fatalities



 * Multiple Stabbings: Mileena pulls her sais out and stabs her opponent to death. (MKII)
 * Human Eater: 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 from 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)
 * Head Snack: 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)

Other finishers

 * Friendship #1: Mileena plants a seed that turns into a flower. (MKII)
 * Friendship #2: Mileena removes her mask and gazes into a mirror, and the mirror shatters. Shao Kahn then says "Pretty." (UMK3, MKT)
 * Animality: Turning into a skunk, Mileena sprays the opponent to death. (UMK3, MKT)
 * Hara-Kiri: Mileena drives her sais into her own head sideways. (MK:D)

Movie and TV appearance
In Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Mileena (played by Dana Hee) served as an assassin for Shao Kahn. She has one line in the entire movie, and was notably not mentioned by name. Instead, she was referred to as "the woman" when describing the dragon tattoo on Raiden's back later in the film.

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. Oddly enough, the similar appearances of Mileena and Kitana are the only connections between the two characters that the movie makes. Mileena's name is never actually mentioned in the movie, but on the DVD release of it, it was mentioned in one of the fight scenes one could select in the Special Features.

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 makes her ugliness much more appalling, she starts to wear her signature mask, which Kahn gives her before banishing her from his sight. She was portrayed by Megan Brown in both forms, and by Audie England in the form of Kitana.

Trivia

 * She could be said by fans to be the closest thing to a daughter Shao Kahn has. In 1995, Malibu Comics released a special spin-off issue of their non-canon Mortal Kombat series, where this is discussed in detail. It is revealed here that Mileena was specifically created by Shang Tsung for Kahn through sorcery (Mileena constantly refers to herself in these comics as "Shao Kahn's true daughter").
 * In Deception, she boasted an alternate outfit that covers less skin than any Mortal Kombat outfit to date. To this end, she also appeared in a special edition of Playboy magazine featuring video game characters, though she remained clothed and veiled.
 * MK co-creator Ed Boon has described Kitana and Mileena as the female equivalents of Scorpion and Sub-Zero.
 * While still razor sharp, Mileena's elongated Tarkatan teeth seem to be getting shorter and shorter through the games, as recent transparent promotional renders that allow her teeth to be seen through the veil on her head reveal significantly shorter teeth than her MK2 teeth or Baraka's teeth, for example.
 * Every game in which Mileena and Kitana both appear without being palette swaps of one another, Mileena sports more revealing and provocative clothing than Kitana. An obvious character explanation would be that perhaps Mileena is flaunting her body as a form of compensation for her lack of a beautiful face (or at least a lower face in particular).