Tanya

"I have been called an enforcer of the Deadly Alliance. I prefer the term "ambassador.""

- Tanya's Mortal Kombat: Deception Biography

Tanya is a fictional character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. She made her debut in Mortal Kombat 4.

About Tanya
Tanya is a slender, gloomy woman from Edenia. Originally introduced as relatively innocent, she quickly turned out to be corrupted by evil, as evidenced in her adherence to the worshiping of Shinnok which also made her an ally to Shinnok's dangerous, religious cult known as the Brotherhood of Shadow, and her later service to both the Deadly Alliance and Onaga. She seems to view herself as more of a survivor rather than anything else, justifying her choices as being the "right decisions". Tanya is one of the few female henchmen from the Mortal Kombat series, and prides herself on her superior knowledge of magic and diplomacy. Because of her frequent betrayal of the Edenian cause, she has earned the rivalry and bitter hatred of Jade.

Signature Moves

 * Human Cannon Drill: Tanya lunges forward, spinning in a cork-screw manner with her flaming feet leading towards her opponent. (MK4, MKG, MKD, MKA)
 * Surging Blast: Tanya sends a blast of fire from her hand at her opponent. (MK4, MKG, MKD, MKA)
 * Air Fire Blast: Tanya jumps into the air and sends a blast of fire at a 45 degree angle towards her opponent. (MK4, MKG, MKD, MKA)
 * Split Flip Kick: Tanya somersaults forwards with a flaming kick directed at her opponent. (MK4, MKG, MKD, MKA)
 * Find Me: Tanya surrounds herself with a flaming haze and becomes invisible. (MKD, MKA)

Other Moves

 * Throw: Tanya lifts her foe by the ankles & slams them down. (MK4)
 * Neck Break: Tanya leaps onto her foe's shoulders, wraps her thighs around their head & swings around them 180 degrees. (MK4)

Fatalities

 * Kiss of Deceit: Tanya gives her enemy a kiss on the cheek, which makes their limbs, torso and head twist and contort into impossible angles, before they explode. (MK4, MKG)
 * Neck Screw: Tanya performs her "breaker" move three times in quick succession. The nearly identical animation led fans to dub this move as "lazy". (MK4, MKG)
 * Torture Rack: Using her Kobu Jutsu, Tanya slices her enemy's torso, slits their throat, and then stabs them in their abdomen, allowing them to bleed to death as they sink to their knees. (MKD)
 * Kneebone Knife: Tanya rips out the opponent's thigh bone and stabs them in the neck with it. The opponent then coughs until falling down, dead. (MKD)

Other finishers

 * Hara-Kiri - Eye Stab: Tanya rips out both of her thigh bones and stabs herself in the head through her eye sockets. (MKD)

Trivia

 * Tanya's name comes from Ed Boon's sister, Tania.
 * Tanya was for a time mistaken to be a "clone" of Jade, just like Mileena is a clone of Tarkatan and Kitana. In the development stage of MK4, the development team did intend Kitana to be a playable character, but the decision was made to add a new face instead (Kitana would, however, be accessible through third-party devices, and officially reappear in Mortal Kombat Gold).
 * Tanya is one of few characters who uses the invisibility move in the Mortal Kombat series. Others include Reptile, Smoke, Chameleon (when in Reptile's form) and Noob Saibot. She, and Khameleon are the only females to use this ability.
 * In  Mortal Kombat: Deception' s Konquest mode, Tanya is one of two characters (the other being Kabal) who will attack Shujinko if she is bumped into. Normally, the aggressive characters must be punched by Shujinko before they react by assaulting him back.
 * Tanya, along with Quan Chi, were the only characters who debuted in Mortal Kombat 4 to appear in other sequels after it, until all the characters' appearances in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.
 * In  Mortal Kombat: Deception' s Konquest mode, with the help of Shujinko, Tanya finds a cave in Outworld that she will use to trap Liu Kang. This could be a reference to her MK4 ending. However, Shujinko can also find Liu Kang to warn him about it.
 * She was confirmed to be one of the female ninjas in Khameleon's Bio Kard.
 * Revealed in her Deception biography kard that her boomerang from the 4/Gold timeline was planned to be useable in game, but for unknown reasons it was scrapped from the final project.
 * In Mortal Kombat (2011), Kitana can be seen chained up in Shao Kahn's Coliseum. However, if the player chooses Kitana in either the Single or Tag Arcade Ladder, Tanya will be chained up in Kitana's place. Tanya's design is unchanged from her appearances in Deception and Armageddon.
 * In a Top 10 list hosted by Screwattack.com, Tanya's Neck Snap Fatality was placed at #10 of the worst Fatalities in the Mortal Kombat series.
 * Tanya's alternate costume from Mortal Kombat: Deception is a modified version of her Mortal Kombat 4 costume.
 * In MK: D, Tanya's weapon in Deception-Armageddon, Kobu Jutsu, was simply known as "Tonfas" in early stages of development.
 * The Kobu Jutsu will remain visible after Tanya has turned invisible. The only way to use them with the invisibility is during, or at the ending of, a combo while invisible.
 * Lia Montelongo, who portrayed Tanya in MK4, also portrayed Sindel in MK3 and Sareena in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero. At the time of MK3 she was the youngest person to portray a Mortal Kombat character.
 * According to Ed Boon on Twitter, Tanya barely missed the cut for MK9.

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