Kitana (Mortal Kombat)

Kitana (or Princess Kitana by title) is a player and boss character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series.

In video games

Kitana first appeared in Mortal Kombat II as Shao Kahn's daughter and personal assassin, working alongside her supposed twin sister Mileena. After centuries of loyally serving Kahn, Kitana uncovered the truth about her past, discovering that she is actually the daughter of Edenia's King Jerrod and Queen Sindel, taken as Shao Kahn's own when he conquered their realm. She also learned that Mileena was not her sister, but a grotesque clone of her created at Shao Kahn's behest by the sorceror Shang Tsung using the essence of both Kitana and a Tarkatan warrior. Originally intended to replace Kitana should she ever learn of her true birthright, Mileena emerged flawed but Kahn allowed her to live, however, instead using her to ensure Kitana would stay loyal to him. Eventually, the "sisters" clashed and Kitana emerged victorious, killing Mileena. (According to the spin-off game , when Kitana was found no longer loyal to Kahn, she was put into a trance and forced to fight the Earthrealm heroes anyway; she was however freed from this state by Liu Kang and Kung Lao.)

During the events of Mortal Kombat 3 (where she appears in Liu Kang's ending) and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (in which she was added as a playable character), Kitana was put on trial for treason and the murder of Mileena. Before a verdict and sentence could be reached, however, she escaped from Shao Kahn's dungeons and joined the warriors of Earthrealm to free Sindel, who had been resurrected and used by Kahn to invade Earth. After convincing her friend Jade to join her, Kitana located and freed Sindel from Shao Kahn's mental control, leading to his defeat at the hands of Liu Kang. Kitana, Sindel, and Jade then liberated Edenia from Outworld.

Their jubilance was short-lived, as during Mortal Kombat Gold, Shinnok and his grand vizier Quan Chi escaped imprisonment in the Netherrealm and invaded Edenia. Betrayed by the traitorous Edenian Tanya, Kitana, Sindel, and Jade were taken prisoner, but Kitana managed to escape and rejoin her Earthrealm allies. Shinnok's forces were eventually defeated by the combined efforts of Kitana and her allies. With Edenia freed once again, Kitana finally proposed to Liu Kang, offered him the chance to rule Edenia at her side as King and Queen. Liu Kang reluctantly rejected her offer, seeing his true duty as Champion of Earth. After Shinnok's defeat, Kitana imprisoned Mileena but learned that Shao Kahn had survived his defeat on Earthrealm and was slowly regaining power in Outworld. Knowing that Shao Kahn would attempt to reclaim Edenia once he was strong enough, she forged an alliance with Goro, prince of the Shokan race of Outworld. The combined armies of the Edenians and Shokans defeated much of Kahn's forces, but were eventually locked in stalemate.

In , Kitana learned that Shao Kahn had been slain by unknown assassins. Thinking her fight was at an end, she began the journey back to Edenia, hoping to finally live in peace. However, before reaching Edenia she encountered Kung Lao, who told her of the plans of the Deadly Alliance, Quan Chi and Shang Tsung, who were responsible for Shao Kahn's demise and were attempting to revive the undead army of the legendary Dragon King. Kung Lao also informed her of Liu Kang's death at the hands of Shang Tsung. Despite Kitana's grief, she once again rejoined the Earthrealm warriors against the new threat. Eventually, Kitana and her allies assaulted Shang Tsung's palace, where she faced Quan Chi one-on-one. Despite her improved fighting skills, gained from training with Bo' Rai Cho, Kitana was outmatched by the powerful sorcerer and killed alongside her allies. Shortly after, they would be resurrected and magically enslaved by Onaga, the legendary Dragon King. He then sent Mileena to impersonate Kitana as the princess of Edenia.

In , Onaga used Kitana to defeat and imprison her mother, Sindel, knowing that the queen would not fight her daughter. Sindel was freed from her own dungeon by Jade, and together they fled to Outworld where they attempted to find a way to defeat Onaga and free Kitana from his influence. Unknown to anyone at the time, Liu Kang's spirit was able to remain amongst the living due to the bond he shared with Kitana. He found himself a new ally and friend in Ermac, as the two embarked on a mission to save their allies as well.

Ermac and Liu Kang were successful in freeing Kitana and the other Earthrealm heroes. Afterward, as she travels back to Edenia, she encounters Blaze, who warns her of a coming new danger that will threaten all the realms. Kitana is told she needs to assemble the forces of light into battle. Weary of constant battle, Kitana is disheartened, but Blaze assures her that the wars will soon be over. Following this warning, Kitana returns in , accompanied by Liu Kang's spirit in order to keep him whole until there was a way to reunite him with his body. They later meet with Nightwolf, who was weakened from using his shamanic powers to draw Onaga's soul into the Netherrealm. He offered to relieve Kitana of her burden by using what magic he had left to take Liu Kangs soul into himself, allowing Kitana to fight against the coming evil. Kitana ultimately perished with the rest of her allies during the battle.

In the crossover video game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Kitana was transported to Metropolis, where she encountered Wonder Woman (her counterpart from DC Universe). Due to the "kombat rage", Kitana hallucinated, believing Wonder Woman to be an assassin sent from Outworld and challenged her. After being defeated, Kitana fled to elsewhere in Metropolis, where she was found and defeated by Scorpion and brought to Raiden's temple, where she explained seeing the fusion of Shao Kahn and Darkseid: Dark Kahn. Kitana then joined the rest of the Kombatants in traveling to the fused realms of Outworld and Apokolips, and fought alongside them against the DC heroes and villains, and was one of the many knocked unconscious while Raiden and Superman battle and destroy Dark Kahn. In MK: Shaolin Monks, Kitana is both a boss character in the game's main story mode and one of unlockable player characters for the versus mode.

Kitana appears in Mortal Kombat, the 2011 re-imagining of the original three Mortal Kombat games, in which she and Jade are sent by Shao Kahn to compete in the Mortal Kombat tournament. In the game's story mode, Kitana battles Liu Kang in an attempt to insure that he will not reach the final stages of the tournament, but is defeated. Expecting to die, she is surprised by his decision to spare her. Later, during the second Mortal Kombat tournament, Kitana is approached by Raiden, who informs her that her supposed past as Shao Kahn's daughter is a lie. In Shang Tsung's Flesh Pits, she discovers a newly-created Mileena. Before Shao Kahn, she accuses Shang Tsung of attempting to replace her, and is shocked to learn that the emperor himself ordered Mileena's creation. Kahn imprisons Kitana in the palace and commands his "true daughter" to be brought to him. However, Kitana is soon freed by Jade and the two escape to Earthrealm to join their new allies against the forces of Outworld. They assist in the battle for Earthrealm, but are killed alongside several others by her corrupted mother, Sindel. She is one of the warriors resurrected by Quan Chi in the Netherrealm to battle Raiden.

Creation and design

Legacy

Cultural impact

Promotion and merchandise

Critical reception

In 2007, Kitana was included by Tom's Games among the 50 greatest female characters in video game history. In 2008, GamesRadar placed Kitana among "Top 20 Overlooked Game Babes", and UGO Networks ranked her as #28 on their list of "Top 50 Videogame Hotties" ("Kitana has her curves in all the right places, and her signature fans will keep you cool when things start to heat up"), while Mania ranked her #10 among the "psychotic video game chicks with too much baggage". In 2009, GameDaily editors included her in a list of "Ten Babes Who Should and 10 Babes Who Shouldn't Meet Your Mom", stating that the combination of hiding her face with a mask and her sheer deadliness would be met with displeasure, also featuring her in their "Babe of the Week: Brunettes" piece the following year, while Unreality placed Kitana in the list of "10 of the Most Badass Video Game Women of All Time", and Complex Blog included her among "The 10 Hottest Video Game Girls", and a Polish tabloid Fakt featured her among the "21 sexy ladies of computer games". In 2010, GamePros AJ Glasser found Kitana as his favorite female Mortal Kombat character, even as he criticized her special moves. In 2011, UGO included her in the list of "25 Hot Ninja Girls" ("we can't talk Mortal Kombat and forget Kitana"), while Game Revolution ranked her as #4 among "Top 10 Old School Mortal Kombat Characters" and Complex had the animated series' version of Kitana as #18 on their list of "The 25 Hottest Cartoon Women Of All Time". She was also included on the list of 9 "sexiest babes of action games" by The Times of India.

Kitana has also shared much of the spotlight with her clone. At the time of the release of MKII, The Miami Herald called Kitana and Mileena, "leggy ladies who wear masks", to be "an interesting step toward political correctness" as "a far cry from Little Miss Muffet", while Austin American-Statesman described them as "far nastier than that martial-artless aerobics instructor from the first game". In the book Interacting With Video, the "two Asian twin sisters, Kitana and Mileena" were held as an example of a "highly eroticized dragon lady" of video games. Kitana also shared #7 with Mileena for her "Kiss of Doom" on GamesRadar's list of "Top 7 Girls kissing girls" in 2006. In 2009, GamePro ranked them #11 on their list of the best palette-swapped video game characters. The two also shared #8 with Sonya on the list of "The 50 Hottest Women In Video Games" by Complex in 2010.

One of the urban legend-style rumours surrounding MKII concerned the supposed Nudality finishing move that would be performed by Kitana. The nickname of an adult model Cherie Roberts is "Kitana Jade" since 1999 (Jade being the name of another female ninja character in the MK series). In 2004, Vibe's Stud Houston admitted he had once a crush on Kitana and called her "sexy as hell". In 2010, a self-proclaimed "geek" Tanya Jordan won the Ms Fitness Southern California event for her pole dance while cosplay dressed as Kitana from UMK3 (in 2011, the FHM Premiere Vixen champion Karen Bordador also cosplayed as Kitana). During the development of the MK reboot, the God of War series' director David Jaffe enthusiastically wrote how the GoW character Kratos would have "a ****ALITY" with "Sonya AND Katana [sic]" if he would join the series (Kratos was indeed soon added to the MK character roster).

References

External links

Category:Female video game characters Category:Fictional adoptees Category:Fictional assassins Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1993 Category:Fictional characters who can teleport Category:Fictional killers Category:Fictional ninja Category:Fictional orphans Category:Fictional princesses Category:Fictional women soldiers and warriors Category:Film characters Category:Mortal Kombat characters Category:Video game bosses

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