Sonya Blade



''All Sonya knew for sure was that somehow she had to rescue her fellow agents. As her Special Forces training dictated, no man would be left behind.'' -- Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance Bio

Sonya Blade is a fictional character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. She is one of the few original Mortal Kombat characters, debuting in the first Mortal Kombat arcade game.

About Sonya
Lieutenant Sonya Blade is a member of a top United States Special Forces unit. She is a beautiful, stern, 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. She has a long-standing enmity with the thug Kano, who stands for everything Sonya despises.

Mortal Kombat
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.

Mortal Kombat II
Sonya was able to send a signal to her superior Jax from Outworld. 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 after her friend, Liu Kang, defeated Khan, and she arrested Kano, but as soon as they had passed through the portal to Earth, Kano escaped and ran back into Outworld.

Mortal Kombat 3/Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
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.

Mortal Kombat 4/Mortal Kombat Gold
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.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
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.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
Sonya and her force found Sektor and his men invading territory protected by Earthrealm. Her ship destroyed Sektor's, but she found a tracer attached to an Edenian warrior named Taven in the snow region of Arctika. As Taven was about to fight a snow monster, Sonya destroyed it and proceeded to interrogate Taven. Though Taven was innocent, he would not reveal his quest, and Sonya attacked him. She was, however, no match for the half-god and retreated, promising Taven she'd be following him and for him to be on his guard.

In her own ending, Blaze offered Sonya any power she desired after defeating him. Whatever choice she made, her attention turned to Kano, who had made it to the top of the pyramid. Her gaze burned into Kano, who screamed with agony and exploded into a cloud of ash. With her mortal enemy dead, she would used her to destroy all the remaining members of the Red and Black Dragon clans and create a era of peace.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
She is allied with her archnemesis Kano and her rival is Catwoman.

In her ending, she manages to salvage one of the Green Latern Corps. rings from a fallen user. Despite its power, the ring was weak with only one charge left in it.

Signature moves

 * Energy Rings: Clanging her wrists together she would send out ring-like fireballs that would hit the opponent. (MK, MK3, UMK3, MKT, MKvs.DCU)
 * Leg Grab: Sonya would do a handstand and grab her opponent with her feet and slam them on the ground. It is unblockable. One of her classic attacks. (MK, MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK4, MKG, MKvs.DCU)
 * 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, MKG, MKvs.DCU)
 * Inverted Bicycle Kick: Like Liu Kang, Sonya would rise into the air with a series of kicks to the opponent. This can turn into Bike Assult after doing a Bicycle Kick, Sonya does another Bicycle kick to the ground. (MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK4, MKG, MKvs.DCU)
 * Air Leg Throw: Using her legs she would toss the opponent to the ground from the air. (MK4, MKG)
 * Cartwheel Kick: Sonya would perform a cartwheel at her opponent kicking them on impact. (MK4, MKG, MKvs.DCU)
 * 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. (MK:DA)
 * Kiss Of Death: Sonya would blow a kiss that would stun the opponent. Note this move won't work on Kenshi, due to the fact that he is blind. (MK:DA, MK:A, MKvs.DCU)
 * Air Borne Bicycle Kick: Sonya preforms her Bicycle Kick in the air, kicking her opponent while coming down. (MKvs.DCU)

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, MKvs.DCU)
 * 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)
 * Leg Splitter: 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. (MK:DA)
 * Neck Breaker: Sonya grabs the opponent by the neck, stands upside-down while doing so and breaks their neck. (MKvs.DCU)

Other finishers

 * Friendship #1: Sonya dances. (MK3)
 * Friendship #2: Sonya would salute and flowers would grow all over the floor. (UMK3, MKT)
 * 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 Mortal Kombat|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, Sonya is 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.
 * Sonya's 2P costume in Mortal Kombat 4 and Gold gives her a striking resemblance to Nina Williams of Tekken, a fighting game series created by Namco. Ed Boon had stated in an interview that Tekken is his favorite fighting game.
 * a false rumor that spread among many players in the first mortal kombat was the existence of a code that would make Sonya appear naked in the game. Various reports told of its existence only appearing in the Sega version, only in the arcade version, and so on.