Characters / Mortal Kombat – Mileena

Mortal Kombat Main Character Index
Main series: MK (1992) | MK2 | MK3 | MK4 | Deadly Alliance | Deception | Armageddon | MK vs. DC Universe | MK9 | MKX | MK11 | MK1
Spinoffs: Mythologies: Sub-Zero | Special Forces
Non-video game: The Movie | Conquest | Defenders of the Realm | 2021 Movie
Individual Characters: Scorpion I (Hanzo Hasashi) | Sub-Zero I/Noob Saibot (Bi-Han) | Johnny Cage | Liu Kang | Raiden | Shang Tsung | Sub-Zero II/Scorpion II (Kuai Liang) | Kitana | Mileena | Shao Kahn/General Shao | Quan Chi

Spoilers for Mythologies will be unmarked

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Mileena

"Come... let us be a family."

Debut game: Mortal Kombat II (Katalin Zamiar)

Other appearances: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (Becky Gable), Mortal Kombat Gold, Mortal Kombat: Deception, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (Johanna Anonuevo), Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (Lita Lopez), Mortal Kombat 9 (Karen Strassman), Mortal Kombat X (Karen Strassman, English; Mireya Mendoza, Latin American Spanish), Mortal Kombat 11 (Kari Wahlgren, English; Toni Rodríguez, Latin American Spanish; Kaprice Imperial, face model), Mortal Kombat 1 (Kari Wahlgren (English), Betzabé Jara (Latin American Spanish), Quynh Chi Nguyen (face model))

Non-game appearances: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (Dana Hee), Mortal Kombat: Conquest (Megan Brown), Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm (Cree Summer), Mortal Kombat: Legacy (Jolene Tran in the first season, Michelle Lee in the second), Mortal Kombat (2021) (Sisi Stringer), Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms (Grey Griffin)

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.

The Emperor feared if Kitana 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 and the clone's 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. During Mortal Kombat II, Shao Kahn began to grow suspicious of Kitana and Mileena was ordered to watch over her sister. After finding out that Kitana was indeed conspiring with the Earthrealm warriors, Mileena attacked the princess, but Kitana proved to be the superior fighter and killed her. Damned to the Netherealm, Mileena found herself recruited by the fallen Elder God Shinnok. She served the rogue deity as a spy during Mortal Kombat Trilogy, and then assisted in Shinnok's invasion of Edenia during Mortal Kombat Gold. 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.

When the Dragon King, Onaga, returned during Mortal Kombat: Deception and began his own invasion of Edenia, Mileena was freed from her prison by former ally (and possible lover) Baraka. She joined Onaga, and was ordered to pose as Kitana in order to mislead the princess' armies. However, as Mileena began her deception, she also began to consider taking control of the armies for herself. After the fall of Onaga, she used those armies to take over Shao Kahn's fortress during the period before Armageddon, only to surrender it back to Kahn when the former Emperor returned and faced her.

Mileena has a slight upgrade to her story in Mortal Kombat 9 as, rather than a clone raised alongside Kitana since childhood, she is a fully-grown woman who was cloned shortly before the events of the story and gains consciousness during the events of the Outworld tournament. The discovery of this information plays a very large role in Kitana's decision to defect from Outworld while Mileena continues to faithfully serve the emperor as a personal assassin. However, it's the aftermath of said storyline that sees huge changes in her character's direction: With Shao Kahn gone, she becomes the Empress of Outworld. Until Kotal Kahn drives her and her forces underground, that is. She then embarks in a civil war against him, with its toll being taken on Outworld's stability. Ultimately, the coup fails and she is killed by D'Vorah.

After being mentioned many times in several intro dialogues in Mortal Kombat 11 and making a cameo appearance in Kitana's Friendship in the Aftermath expansion, Mileena finally returns as a DLC character for Kombat Pack 2, as part of the game's Ultimate expansion.

Mileena returns once again as part of the New Era of Mortal Kombat 1. The new timeline sees a drastic change in Mileena's story, for she is now truly Kitana's biological twin sister and not a clone created through magical experimentation. Born merely seconds ahead of her sister, Mileena is next in line to inherit the throne of Outworld. However, just as in the original timeline, Mileena is the more hot-headed and impulsive of the two sisters, which makes her decision-making somewhat unpopular among some of Outworld's denizens. Some even believe that Kitana would make for a better ruler due to her steadier hand. And to make matters worse, Mileena's life and claim to the throne is now threatened by a dark secret she is now forced to hide from everyone: she has been infected with the dreaded Tarkat disease, a plague which slowly and steadily mutates anyone who contracts it into a disfigured, feral beast, and has to take a special serum in order to maintain her normal appearance.

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Tropes related to Mileena in the Midway and original Netherrealm timelines^note Tropes that appear across all of Mileena's appearances from Mortal Kombat II to Mortal Kombat 11.

A-G

• 0% Approval Rating: A lot of pre-match dialogue in MKX has opposing fighters bringing up Outworld's general opposition to her rule, with the exception of Raiden, since he wants to rid Earthrealm of Outworld; Sonya, who says in one intro Kotal was wrong to depose her (though she wouldn't exactly say they're on friendly terms); and Tanya, who wants to help reclaim her throne (though it may be for selfish gain).
  • Her reputation gets slightly better in 11, due to the fact Shao Kahn and Sindel are very doting parents to her, but there's still a lot of enmity between her and a good portion of the cast (especially anyone who worked with Kotal), and some people in her father's service, such as Skarlet and Kollector, aren't as loyal to her as they are Shao Kahn.
  • Her New Era incarnation is also subject to this, to some extent. There are some who believe Kitana is a better fit for the throne due to her own impulsiveness. This ends up being subverted by the end when she helps defend Outworld from General Shao's insurrection and succeeds Sindel as Empress of Outworld when she is killed by her alternate timeline counterpart. Guided by a revived Jerrod (as Ermac), her sister Kitana, and Tanya, she reveals the secret of her Tarkat affliction and manages to successfully endure the ensuing scandal.
• Abhorrent Admirer: Her pre-fight dialogue with Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat X suggests she's got a thing for him.
  Liu Kang: "You stay away from Kitana."
  Mileena: "I'll make you forget all about her~." / ""Yes, let's keep this between us~."
  • She also gets flirty with Kung Lao in MKX. (Maybe it's a Shaolin monk thing?) He is... quite disgusted.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Combined with You Don't Look Like You. Her MKX redesign has come with some pretty significant changes to her facial structure compared to Mortal Kombat 9, so she now looks less like Baraka with hair and more like a distinct fusion between the two races. She has humanoid lips in basically the same place that a regular person's would be, but her cheeks are split into a Glasgow Grin nearly reaching her ears and are lined with teeth that look more like large canines rather than the needle straight teeth that the Tarkatans have. YMMV whether this makes her more conventionally attractive, or just more disturbing.
• Adaptational Ugliness: 11 undoes the attractive upgrade done to Mileena's teeth in X. Unlike before, however, where she simply resembled a normal female Tarkatan, the unnatural Glasgow Grin from X is retained to make her appear more of an aberration than a Tarkatan. She also gets an unusual new lizard's tongue to further make her unsettling.
• Adaptation Personality Change: The new timelines trade the times she tried to usurp her father Shao Kahn for making her completely loyal and devoted to pleasing, and later living up to him. This carries over into her new incarnation in 1, where she hopes to one day live up to her mother Sindel's example as Empress.
• Almost Kiss: Part of her first MK9 Fatality, Be Mine.
• Amazonian Beauty: Just like Kitana, some of the games make her into a muscular beauty. 9, especially, depicts her as ripped, broad-shouldered, and rocking a six-pack, more notably in the costume where she's naked save for some strategically placed bandages. Just don't look at her face.
• Ambiguously Bi: Even though there are indications that Mileena is bisexual, neither Ed Boon nor Netherrealm Games have expressed themselves on the matter.
  • In the original timeline, Mileena was presented as straight, mostly in that she was implied to have some kind of hidden relationship going on with Baraka — her endings in the original trilogy all mention her placing Baraka on the throne of Outworld.
  • In the reboot timeline, she flirts heavily with many of the male kombatants in their intros... but she also does the same with her "sister" Kitana, and with Jacqui Briggs.
  • Also in the reboot timeline is her relationship with Tanya. Whilst the story emphasizes that Tanya is Mileena's loyal follower and Mileena has latched onto that loyalty because she's desperate for affection, they have very flirtatious pre-match dialogue. In one of the potential Tremor/Tanya pre-fight exchanges, Tremor outright calls Tanya "Mileena's concubine". The strongest evidence that their relationship is romantic comes from 11, where Mileena's being distraught at Tanya's death is referenced multiple times — and then there's Mileena's Tower ending which shows them raising a daughter together. Whilst Tanya's feelings for Mileena are a little more circumspect given her Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, Mileena definitely is deeply bonded to Tanya.
  • In 2023, the Twitter account for the Mortal Kombat Mobile Spin-Off game posted a piece of official art featuring Mileena alongside the franchise’s other LGBT characters in celebration of Pride Month. This marks the first time Netherrealm has made any sort of official acknowledgement of her sexual orientation.
• Ambiguously Brown: Due to starting as a Palette Swap of Kitana, Mileena has similarly shared Kitana's propensity for shifting skin tones and appearances. She was originally played by the Cuban Katalin Zamiar in MKII, with later games generally tending to make her a paler version of Kitana until 11, where she shared Kitana's Race Lift into a more definitive East Asian appearance. Live action appearances have been more varied, with Mileena being played by Caucasian actresses in Annihilation and Conquest while Legacy and the 2021 film have her played by East Asian and Black actresses respectively.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: In 9, for completing the Challenge tower, you earn a third alt. costume for her, wearing nothing but bandages covering the naughty parts and nothing else.^note It's the same "costume" she wears in her first appearance in Story Mode, in Kitana's chapter. It is perhaps worth telling that Ed Boon apparently considers this the "substantial reward" for beating all the difficult challenges.
• Arch-Enemy: Three major ones. Her sister Kitana, her usurper Kotal Kahn, and her killer D'Vorah.
• Artificial Family Member: She is a clone created from Kitana's genetic material to pose as Kitana's sister. Kitana, however, views her as an abomination. It also doesn't help Mileena was created with neither Kitana's knowledge nor consent. This is subverted in the New Era, where she is instead Kitana's biological, older twin sister.
• Artificial Human: She was created by Shang Tsung as a clone of Kitana. Averted in the new timeline where she was born the legitimate daughter of Jerrod and Sindel.
• Ax-Crazy: Since her introduction up to 9, Mileena was little more than a psychotic, bestial monster. Starting from X, however, this has been slightly downplayed with her developing more of a human personality. Still played straight any time she fights. However, this trope is in full force again in 11, where Mileena's bloodlust and ferocity get worse as shown in-game and in intros, where even Rambo is disturbed by her.
• Babies Ever After: Her 11 ending has her bearing a child and raising her with Tanya. She's also a pretty good parent, considering how much her daughter loves her.
• Back from the Dead: During II, she fought Kitana and lost, badly. Shinnok resurrected her in Ultimate 3. Happens again in 11, after being killed by D'Vorah in X, thanks to Kronika's manipulation of the timeline.
• Badass Boast:
  Mileena: You don't impress me for a minute.
  Cassie: I'll have you carpet bombed in five.
  Mileena: You will be dead by then.
• Bad Boss: She tests D'Vorah's loyalty by demanding the Kytinn kiss her boot, then kicks her square in the face as she complies. When D'Vorah doesn't strike back, Mileena declares her to be the perfect servant.
• Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: A pre-match dialogue between Jade and Mileena suggests the latter has this view.
  Mileena: My sister is now Kahn?!
  Jade: And she rules Outworld justly and with grace.
  Mileena: How dare she destroy my empire!
• Bed Trick:
  • In Mortal Kombat: Conquest, her MO is to combine this with Black Widow, disguising herself as Kitana to get close to Kung Lao and stick a knife in him. (Naturally, her attempt is foiled by the real Kitana.)
  • In banter with Raiden, she claims to have already subjected Liu Kang to this.
• Berserk Button:
  • Seeing another clone of herself, finding out her resistance force is betraying her and Shinnok being responsible for Shao Kahn's death. On a more humorous note, she becomes indignant when Johhny Cage insinuates that she's been sleeping with Baraka.
  • In 11, Tanya's death makes her absolutely furious. She mentions to Kotal that she's going to kill Jade so he knows her pain, re-hires Kano, not caring how much it costs to avenge her, and is clearly pissed off when Kollector won't tell her where Tanya's body is.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Has a Hara-Kiri move, wherein she stabs herself in the head with her sais.
• Beyond Redemption: It varies, but Mileena makes a Heel–Face Turn in Kitana's ending in 9 when she finally accepts her and makes amends. In 11, Jade notes Kitana wants to similarly make amends and turn her over to good. However, this time, Mileena laughs at the notion and Jade fully states she believes Mileena is beyond redemption.
• Big Bad Wannabe: She is this in Mortal Kombat X as she tries to take back her throne from Kotal Kahn but she fails as D'Vorah kills her via a Kiss of Death.
• Big Eater: Used for her infamous "Man Eater" Fatality; she literally inhales her victim whole and then barfs up either bones or a gush of gore depending on the game^note bones for its original appearances in Mortal Kombat II, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy, gore in Mortal Kombat X.
• Bilingual Bonus: "Kahnum" isn't some gibberish devised in a few seconds by her diseased mind, it is in fact the correct feminine form of her father's title of Khan, or "Kahn" as the case might be.
• Black-Hole Belly: When she does her "maneater" finisher she swallows her opponent whole, but it doesn't ruin her shapely figure in the slightest.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • Her win pose in MK9, where she leaps at the screen. Even if she's fighting on The Pit.
  • In MK11, one of her pre-fight encounters with Erron Black leaves him incredulous to see she's still alive, after Kotal Kahn executed her in MKX. When he asks how, Mileena grins and snarkily replies:
  Mileena: (mockingly) "A million souls cried out for my return."
• Breath Weapon: One of her finishers^note A Fatality in 3 and 4, and a Brutality in 11. has her loading her mouth with nails and spitting them at her defeated foe.
• Butter Face: She's got Kitana's body... and the jawline of Baraka. 'Nuff said. It could explain her penchant for skimpy outfits, an attempt to draw attention away from her nightmarish chompers and towards her more conversationally attractive body.
  Johnny Cage: How ya doin', butter face?
  Mileena: That had better be a compliment!
• The Caligula: She becomes ruler of Outworld in the MKX comics, and she proves to be an even worse ruler than Shao Kahn, even as far as being dubbed "The Mad Empress" by the Outworld inhabitants.
• The Cameo: Before becoming playable in the Ultimate expansion, her only appearance in MK11 was part of Kitana's Friendship, happily playing patty-cake with her sister before sharing a loving hug.
  • She also made a cameo in the Joker's Arcade ending, where he and Havik use the Hourglass to revive her and Hsu Hao and go on a murderous rampage in Orderrealm.
• Casting a Shadow: One interaction with Noob in 11 has him offering to teach her his brand of magic, but Mileena claims Shao Kahn already taught her. She has only explicitly used this magic in 11, where her projectiles (e.g, Sai Blast, Sai Slide) are listed as dealing dark elemental damage.
• Cast from Hit Points: Mileena makes frequent use of Shinnok's amulet in her campaign to oust Kotal Kahn but the side effect of this is her life force is growing ever-weaker with each use. Rain knew this when he suggested she steal the amulet and is using that fact to his advantage by keeping the knowledge to himself, desiring to let Mileena abuse the amulet's power to fight the war until she's no longer able, which he will use to seize her position.
• Character Development: In X she isn't a Perky Female Minion to anyone anymore, having matured to the point that she's an adult physically and mentally, enough to lead an army against Kotal Kahn for Outworld's domination.
• Characterization Marches On: In her endings in the original trilogy, she turns on Shao Kahn and kills him, and rules Outworld with Baraka as Queen and King. A far cry from the reboot timelime, where she'd never betray Shao Kahn willingly and laughs in Baraka's face at the idea of mating with him.
• Co-Dragons: With Kintaro to Shao Kahn. After Shang Tsung and Goro fail Shao Kahn, both Mileena and Kintaro replace them as his most trusted subordinates.
• Crazy in the Head, Crazy in the Bed: She's one of the most sexualized characters in the franchise, and her being a aggressive psychotic "freak" is part of her appeal, and despite her Monstrous Mandibles, she's still one of the most promiscuous characters.
• Cruel Mercy: What she does to Kitana in her Armageddon ending is both incredibly creative and incredibly evil. Blaze's power makes them become one for an instant, and then switches their faces, making Mileena beautiful while giving Kitana her own demonic face. Mileena is thus able to assume the throne of Edenia while imprisoning Kitana, who goes insane as a result.
• Cute and Psycho: Her personality is a weird mix of childish and nubile, with a helping of insanity to go with it. If you can get over her Butter Face, she has an odd allure that endears you to her strange behavior. It helps that in X she acts more mature (being capable enough to lead a rebellion and focus on her goal of overthrowing Kotal Kahn), while 11 puts a higher emphasis on her immaturity, going as far as checking her nails during battle and playing Five-Finger Fillet with her opponent's face as the surface.
• Cute Monster Girl: In general, thanks to her Butter Face attributes being an inhuman array of teeth in an otherwise perfectly normal and voluptuous female form, but it's strongest in MKX, via Adaptational Attractiveness.
• Daddy's Little Villain: All of her actions are done to appease her beloved "father," Shao Kahn.
• Dark Action Girl: Unlike Kitana and Jade, she allies herself with the forces of Outworld.
• Death Is Cheap: Executed by D'Vorah in MKX but brought back by Kronika in MK11, as part of the DLC Ultimate expansion.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: In one of her Fatalities, Mileena pulls her sais out and stabs repeatedly her opponent to death. In another, she swallows a bunch of nails, which she then spits at her opponent.
• Depending on the Artist: Mileena looks hideous without her veil, but just how hideous depends on the game. In 2 and 3 she isn't all-too scary by today's standards, she never even removes the veil at all in Gold, 9 is pretty nightmarish, and in X her face may well be more "normal" than most Outlanders. Deception, however, is the creepiest of all; her jaw seemingly can't close, and you can just barely see that horrific smile through her translucent veil. It's rather unsettling.
• Depraved Bisexual:
  • In MK9 she seems to derive sexual pleasure from finishing off her opponent regardless of gender.
  • X gives Mileena a slew of incredibly suspect dialogue toward fighters of both sexes, Kitana included (though to be fair, Mileena was kind of gushing over her sister's beauty when they first met in the last game). In a bit of irony, Mileena meets her end at the hands—well, lips—of another Ambiguously Bi kombatant: D'Vorah.
  • And exhibit B, her intro dialogue with Tanya.
  • Tremor outright refers to Tanya as "Mileena's concubine," confirming something we already knew about them.
  • Carried on in 11, where the last shot of her ending sees her alongside Tanya once again.
  • She also offers for Jacqui to "play with her", and when Jacqui asks if she means kombat or "something else", Mileena states that either would leave her satisfied.
• Designated Girl Fight: With Kitana. Justified, see above.
• Did They or Didn't They?: As part of her Trolling of Liu Kang and Kitana, Mileena claims to have seduced the former by imitating the latter in the past. Kang and Kitana (and other characters) believe she's bluffing, but there's no way to know for sure.
• Distaff Counterpart: Conceptually speaking, she and Kitana were introduced into the games as the female equivalents of Scorpion and Sub-Zero.
• Doppelganger Link: Her Mortal Kombat X ending has her becoming mentally linked with numerous copies of her.
• Doppelmerger: In Mileena's Armageddon ending, she temporarily merges with Kitana and when they separate, they discover they have switched features, with Mileena having Kitana's beautiful face while Kitana has Mileena's Tarkatan teeth. Mileena impersonates Kitana and has the real Kitana imprisoned, causing the latter to go insane.
• Downloadable Content: In 9, Klassic Mileena from MKII, with a change in one of her moves.
• The Dreaded Pretend Tea-Party: Throws one for herself in her MK11 Friendship, using plush teddy bears to represent herself, Kitana and Jade.
• Dragon Ascendant: In the Mortal Kombat X comic, she takes this role as she takes over Outworld after Shao Kahn's death, but she was an awful ruler and pushed it to the brink of ruin. Kotal Kahn unseats her and now she's out to get her throne back by the time of X.
• Easily Forgiven: As hard as it is to believe, this happens in Kitana's non-canon Arcade Ladder ending from MK9; she and Jade actually forgive Mileena and Kitana accepts her as family, the three eventually ruling Edenia as a benign aristocracy.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Not that pale, but she has the creepy factor down pat.
• Enemy Civil War: With Kotal Kahn for Outworld's throne in MKX.
• Energy Weapon: She can use energy-imbued sais as a projectile attack.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She genuinely loves Shao Kahn and Sindel as parents, and they love her as a daughter. Depending on the Writer, Mileena may hate Kitana out of jealousy, or want to truly be accepted as her sister, and some endings and intro interactions support the idea the two could someday settle their differences peacefully. She also was very much in love with Tanya in X, and in 11 is furious over her death in various intros and viciously declares her intent to avenge her. Her 11 ending shows that if Mileena got her hands on Kronika's Hourglass, she'd create a world where she rules all time and has a happy family with Shao Kahn and Sindel, has Tanya as a lover, and even creates a child to raise as her daughter and is a doting parent to her.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • She tells the Predator that his "face is too repulsive to eat" and she takes offense when Johnny Cage quips that she allegedly had sex with Baraka in MKX.
  • In 11, when Baraka seems to proposition her in the Tarkatan language, Mileena laughs and harshly rejects the idea of sleeping with him.
• Evil Counterpart: To Kitana. She was designed to be the ideal daughter for Shao Kahn: perfectly loyal to him, indifferent to the suffering of her people like her father, and cares only about using her status to take what she desires.
• Evil Knockoff: She was created from Kitana's DNA but also mixed with some Tarkatan genes. The result is a more monstrous version of Kitana with a child's mind.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: As of 11, Mileena appears to be trying to out-rasp Noob Saibot, Frost, Kollector, and Baraka. She essentially sounds Tarkatan, like Baraka, which implies vocal structure is part of it...although she also proves to both Kabal and Liu Kang that she can imitate Kitana's voice perfectly.
  Kabal: How the hell is that possible?
• Evil Twin: She serves as this to Kitana. Considering the details of her creation, though, she would actually be a daughter to her, rather than a sister.
• Evil Versus Evil: In the comic tie in, she's the leader of one of two factions fighting for domination of Outworld, Kotal Kahn being the other. Outworld warriors loyal to her are Reiko, Rain, and maybe Goro, but it is hinted he might double cross her eventually.
• Fan Disservice: Hot as hell until you see her lower face.
  • In MK9, the big reward for completing the 300 challenges is a "naked with bandages in strategic places" costume for her, which is the same costume she's wearing when she fights Kitana in Kitana's chapter. Oh, and said "strategic places" don't include her face.
  • Averted in MKX, where she actually has human lips, making her look a bit less horrifying.
  • In the MKX storyline: Look! Mileena's kissing another girl! Yay! Said girl is D'Vorah, who then spits a swarm of insects into Mileena's mouth that eat her face from the inside! Not yay!
• Fanservice Pack: Starting in Deception. If skin is to be barred, Mileena will most likely be the front-runner in the pushing the envelope race.
• Five-Finger Fillet: One of her moves in MK11 is to pin her opponent down and perform this on her opponent's face, and with a multi-bladed sai to boot. She gets nine stabs in two seconds, and she pauses a bit to check that her fingers are unscathed before jamming in a tenth for good measure.
• Flanderization: Zig-zagged. The developers took the aspect of her character having half-Tarkatan teeth and sex appeal and really played it up in MK9 and toned it back down in X. However, the Flanderization is noticeably upgraded in 11, with her appearance being much more grotesque than ever before, but also significantly increasing her violent demeanor as shown in her gameplay trailer.
• Freudian Excuse: She was hurriedly raised by Shao Kahn and thus, never knew genuine love or affection, resulting in a deep-rooted desire for affection and praise. It's shown that she genuinely does want to bond with Kitana (to the point she could make a Heel–Face Turn), but Kitana simply rejects her as a monster. Her desire for love also makes her easily manipulatable by sociopaths like Tanya, genuinely unaware or refusing to believe she is simply using her.
• Foil: To Kotal Kahn. One became ruler of Outworld by being the emperor's heir, the other by kicking enormous amounts of ass and showing he could actually lead armies and rule.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: If she does not successfully perform a Fatality in 9 after winning, she rips her mask off, leaps towards the camera (even if that's impossible given the arena she's in, like The Pit) and then makes a hideous laugh in the player's face, causing blood to appear on the screen.
• General Failure: Kotal Kahn emphasizes that he overthrew her because she was supposedly this. Justified if true, since MK9 shows that she had the mentality of a twelve year old around the time she would have ascended to the throne.
• Genki Girl: Mileena is this, especially in MK9. Though toned down a bit in X, she's still this.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She has such strong feelings over her beloved teddy bear that she fights Scorpion over it in MK9, and throws a tea party with it in MK11.
• Glasgow Grin: Her being half-Tarkatan gives her a permanent grin filled with razor-sharp teeth. Mortal Kombat X plays this straighter, giving her human lips with Tarkatan teeth running from the corners of those lips up her cheeks.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Becomes Outworld's Empress after Shao Kahn's death, and according to Kotal Kahn, caused a lot of devastation in Outworld as a result. She is later dethroned by Kotal Kahn, but she then starts a civil war, further plunging the realm into chaos.
• God Was My Co-Pilot: Raiden of all people supports her rule because she is the only just claimant to Outworld's throne, regardless of her leadership capabilities. Although according to multiplayer conversations, her stubbornness is really getting in the way of his efforts to help her. It should be said that Raiden may very well be Playing Both Sides to Earthrealm's advantage, as he only asserts Mileena's legitimacy when facing Kotal. Against Mileena herself, Raiden either refuses to be entangled in the current Outworld situation or forgoes neutrality to tell Mileena that her rebellion must end.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In her return in 11, Mileena is incredibly resentful of Skarlet taking her place by Shao Kahn's side.
• Green Thumb: As a Friendship in MKII, Mileena plants a seed that turns into a flower.

H-Y

• Half the Man He Used to Be: Her second Fatality in X, where she leaps onto her opponent then claws away at their midsection until they're completely separated from their legs. The wounded opponent attempts to crawl away but expires immediately after.
• Hammerspace:
  • It's hard to imagine any other place for her to store her two sai in 9, especially in Kitana's Story Mode chapter where she's barely wearing anything.
  • In X this is averted; the two sai are visibly strapped to her back when not in use.
• Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?: Played with. Mileena assumes she's hated for being half Tarkatan (which is true for Kung Lao), but Nightwolf clarifies that the reason she is hated is because she is a murderous lunatic, since even a full-blooded Tarkatan like Baraka has a sense of honor, unlike her.
• Heel–Face Turn: In Kitana's Arcade Ladder ending in 9.
• Hellish Pupils: From 9 onwards, perhaps to better show off her Tarkatan features. Combined with gold eyes normally, and red eyes in her alt. Indeed, it's the only thing that distinguishes her from Kitana when she wears her mask.
• Hidden Depths: Her ending in 11 implies she makes a decent mom.
• Hive Mind: Her X Tower ending has all of the Mileena clones waking up, with each one able to read each other's thoughts and becoming with one of these.
• Iconic Sequel Character: In spades. Mileena was introduced in II as a simple Palette Swap of Kitana, but she quickly proved to be quite popular, arguably more so than her sister. She became so popular that when 3 released without the likes of her, Kitana, or even the classic male ninjas, fan outcry was so huge that Midway had to create Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 largely to ease concerns of iconic characters being left out, with Mileena herself getting special treatment as a secret unlockable character. This same phenomenon happened again in 11 when Mileena was left out of the base roster, being added as part of the final DLC package as the fanbase became vocal yet again. Knowing full well that they did not want a repeat of what happened in 11, Netherrealm made sure to immediately confirm her as part of the base roster in 1, along with making her storyline part of a major plot point.
• I Just Want to Be Beautiful: Most Kombatants consider her a disgusting monster, so she's a little sensitive about her looks. And being nice to her outright bewitches her, as when Reiko joined her army. Sworn enemy? No big deal:
  Sonya: They were wrong to depose you.
  Mileena: Do you wish to be friends?
  Sonya: Wouldn't go THAT far.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: There are times where she will display a desperation for love, especially from her "sister" Kitana (when she isn't trying to kill and/or replace her, at least). Her ending in 11 even shows her having a daughter just so she can have someone who will love her unconditionally.
• I Just Want to Be You: Has a case of this towards Kitana, at the very least desiring her beauty and at most wanting her entire life. Nearly all of Mileena's arcade endings before the reboot have her assuming Kitana's identity and seizing Edenia for herself.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Mileena is a known cannibal, which is the usual manner by which she finishes anyone unfortunate enough to lose to her. Best seen during her "Tasty Treat" fatality in MK X, when she pounces her hapless prey and feasts on their intestines... while they're still ALIVE. She's also not above consuming other Tarkatans, as her appearance in the reveal trailer for Kombat Pack 2 indicates.
  • Mileena's daughter in her Tower ending in 11 is also a cannibal, as we see her mother feeding a massive peace of meat from... someone into her mouth.
• Informed Flaw: Her inability to lead. The only thing Mileena is seen leading in the game itself is a fairly successful rebellion that only ends due to a series of unlucky occurrences. It should also be noted that the primary source of this information is Kotal Kahn, who is not exactly the most unbiased reporter.
• Insult Backfire: Being called the Mad Empress repeatedly makes her admit that she's mad enough to let Kotal Kahn live when they are facing and about to fight a Blood Magik-powered Reiko.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: In MK9 and MKX, she appears to get aroused whenever she pulls off a Fatality.
• Kill and Replace: What she was created to do to her "sister", Kitana. In several of her non-canon arcade endings she succeeds.
• Kombat Stilettos: Same deal as Kitana.
• Laughing Mad: Occasionally she will let out a chipmunk-esque cackle after performing a combo in X.
• Lecherous Licking: The way she runs her tongue across her opponent's cheek before disembowelling them in 11 can be interpreted as this if her opponent is male (and preferably Liu Kang).
• Let's Dance: Her opening line in Mortal Kombat 9. She also uses a variation when confronting Taven in Armageddon's Konquest Mode:
  "Care to dance?"
• Lightning Bruiser: Mileena's strength is her incredible agility, being the fastest character in II. Her attacks are usually speedy rolls or teleport kicks that keep her opponent guessing where she's going to be coming from next.
• Literal Maneater: She acts flirty and seductive, but she's got no problem eating her bedmates either before or after they succumb to her charms.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: At least in II. In most subsequent appearances, Mileena wears her hair shorter (about shoulder length).
• Lovable Sex Maniac: "Lovable" might be stretching it, but MKX definitely ramps up her maniacal urges to go along with the violence. Just listen to her pre-fight quips against half the male kombatants. As this little gem with Sub-Zero can attest:
  Sub-Zero: "You will know the sting of winter."
  Mileena: "Come, let me warm you..."
  • She gets flirty with at least a quarter of the cast; Sub-Zero, Takeda, Kenshi, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Jacqui Briggs, Kitana, Tanya, and Kung Jin all included.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Well, sort of...
• Man Bites Man: Used in a wide array of special moves and Fatalities; she has multiple attacks based on biting her enemy, and her Fatalities ranging from inhaling her victim whole and then puking up their bones to ripping their throat out with her teeth to tearing off their head and gnawing on it before hurling it aside. Her Ravenous Variation in X gives her plenty of combos (and a Brutality) for her to work with by using her sharp fangs. One early design for X would have her able to unhinge her jaw like a snake does, but it didn't make the final cut.
• Mark of the Supernatural: Looking closely at her face in 11 reveals that only one eye◊ has a Hellish Pupil while the other one seems perfectly normal. This is another sign of her status as a hyrbidized clone of Kitana and a Tarkatan.
• Me's a Crowd: Her MKX Ladder ending has her find an entire army of clones made by Shang Tsung that she can control telepathically. She uses them to reclaim Outworld.
• Mind Screw: Mileena's Ethereal variation has her do Mind Games on her opponent by setting a point where she can teleport at, even behind the opponent.
• Mirror-Cracking Ugly: Her Friendship in Ultimate.
• Misplaced Retribution: Subverted. She has plenty of reason to confront Rain about his duplicity in 11. That said, he does angrily point out just how bad Tanya has duped her and how Mileena is putting all the blame on Rain.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Due to her status as half-Tarkatan. Lessened to some degree in X.
• Ms. Fanservice: As long as she covers her face up with a mask, Mileena is a drop dead gorgeous woman who proudly displays her body with Stripperriffic clothing. Even when her designs become Tamer and Chaster from MKX and onward she still maintains a sexualized design with skin tight suits, high heels, and an emphasis on her chest.
• Mysterious Veil: Part of her costume and helps her look like Kitana, plus it covers her teeth.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Her ninja leotard in MKIII has a neckline that plunges to her navel. Her outfit in MK9 has a similar v-shaped neckline that ends just above her crotch.
• Nightmare Face: Due to her Tarkatan DNA, she has a human face but a large mouth rimmed with long, sharp teeth.
• Nightmare Fetishist: In MK9 and MKX, she appears to get aroused whenever she pulls off a Fatality.
• Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: Mileena is a clone created from a mixture of a Edenian and Tarkatan DNA.
• Off with Her Head!: Several of her Fatalities involve biting the opponent's head off (and occasionally eating it afterwards.)
• Optional Boss: While present as a normal boss in Shaolin Monks, you can fight her again after beating the game by accessing a secret area accessible in the Living Forest.
• Overly-Long Tongue: She has one in 11 and Mortal Kombat 1.
• Perky Female Minion: One who has no qualms about killing, but still, Mortal Kombat 9 has made her pretty genki. Her pre-match quote and some other lines display a childlike enthusiasm for violence, and she seems genuinely excited on fighting for her "father", the Obviously Evil Shao Kahn. She sheds this off upon X, where she is the leader of a resistance.
• Pink Is Erotic: Mileena's pink (or purple depending on the game) outfits are so Stripperiffic that they stand out even when compared to other Stripperiffic characters and she tends to make a lot of suggestive poses, making her one of the most sexualized characters in the series.
• Psycho Pink: In contrast to Kitana's Blue Is Heroic attire, some of Mileena's attire is pink.
• Practically Different Generations: Exaggerated. Kitana was over 10,000 years old when Mileena was created.
• Prim and Proper Bun: Her hairstyle (shared with every other female ninja who existed as of MK3) in MK3. It returns in some of her alternate skins in 11.
• Primp of Contempt: Mileena performs two nail checks in her 11 gameplay. The first is her grab, which features her turning around and checking her nails while Sais fly into her opponent. In one of her other attacks, she stabs her opponent in the eye multiple times, checks her nails for a moment, and lands one final stab.
• Princesses Prefer Pink: Well, she posed as Kitana between Deception and Armageddon, and at least wears pink.
• Progressively Prettier:
  • Her teeth were resized considerably in Deception and Armageddon. They still look grotesque, though, just not as extremely as her original design. Unlike most versions of this these changes had little to do with making her more attractive and more trying to balance her obvious Tarkatan features with the fact that it was established she could flawlessly pass as Kitana.
  • They decided to take the opposite approach to start her off in the new timeline, as MK9 shows her face as being full Tarkatan coming out of the flesh pits. Her design in MKX, however, adds the contrasting feature of placing human lips in between the giant teeth, perhaps symbolizing her more complex imperial character as well as explaining how she came to be able to pass as Kitana over time. As MK11 depicts her original self brought forward in the timeline as DLC, she looks more like Kitana above the nose but below is still all teeth.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: Obviously, she's one. Her bio in Mortal Kombat 9 states that she's this. She even tells Stryker in an exchange (during Shao Kahn's invasion of Earthrealm) that she's looking for a new playmate. One of the challenge tower missions involves her attempts to force Scorpion to accept a teddy bear that she made for him (as far as actual age goes, she is a child, having been just "born" in the midst of the Story Mode). Mortal Kombat X also shows, through some her pre-fight dialogue, that she's terribly insecure about her appearance and has a strong desire to be viewed as physically attractive (which probably explains her constant [but also indirect] sexual advances towards her opponents). However on the whole she's more mature in X, if still somewhat crazy (in the very least she can hold together a rebellion against the current Outworld leadership, even if a lot of them are just piggybacking her war for their own ends).
• Purple Is Powerful: She's a vicious assassin who wears purple outfits and leaves purple mists in her attacks.
• Race Lift: Indirectly, as a result of Kitana's own Race Lifting in 11, Mileena appears to be unambiguously East Asian in appearance as opposed to Ambiguously Brown. And more inexplicably still in the latest film of the franchise where she's played by black actress Sisi Stringer, despite being a clone of a supposedly Asian-looking woman i.e. Kitana.
• The Remnant: Subverted. She is the final vestige of the dynasty of Shao Kahn but when usurped, the faction loyal to her cause is actually only using it as a means to accomplish other goals (most of which are trying to eliminate her). She is the only one actually fighting for the throne to reinstate the empire of Shao Kahn.
• Retcon: The earlier games suggested Mileena was raised alongside Kitana, while 9 involves her being created during the events of Mortal Kombat II^note This is in fact a Retcon and not part of the Reset Button as the events of the first game are relatively untouched by the new timeline; the changes only begin to affect the events of the second game onwards so Mileena's creation is actually different here than was originally established..
• Rolling Attack: Like Kano and Reptile, she's able to curl up into a ball and launch herself at foes. Taken to new heights in her new fatality in 11, where she creatively uses her sais to make herself a spiked wheel.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: Mileeena wears purple and is a personal enemy to Kitana who wears blue.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: A Downplayed Trope between her and Kitana. While Kitana's outfits do show some skin, Mileena's have been more revealing since Deception.
• Sequel Hook: Her Arcade Ending in MKX, which has her wake up in the body of another copy of her made by Shang Tsung.
• Sibling Fusion: In Mileena's Armageddon ending, she defeats Blaze and the energy he releases causes her and Kitana to temporarily fuse together. When they separate they discover they have swapped features; Mileena now has Kitana's beautiful face, while Kitana has Mileena's Tarkatan teeth. This allows Mileena to pose as her sister whom she has thrown into prison where she goes insane.
• Sexy Villains, Chaste Heroes: Invoked and exploited: She uses this to her advantage. She is evil and dresses and acts far more provocatively than her good sister.
• Smelly Skunk: She could turn into one as her Animality in Ultimate MK3. Cue lethally poisonous fart.
• Spit Out a Shoe: Exaggerated in her Maneater fatality. After swallowing her defeated opponent whole she spits out an entire pile of bones.
• Stance System: Ying Yeung and Mian Chuan in Deception, only keeps the latter in Armageddon with Reiko picking up the former.
• The Starscream:
  • Her ending in MKII shows her taking over, to start with.
  • During Deception and before Armageddon, she also uses Kitana and Shao Kahn's deaths to her advantage and starts plotting to take over the realms.
  • Becomes on the receiving end of this five years before the events of Mortal Kombat X. As it turns out, due to her relative naivety and dubious claim to the throne, nearly every single person under her (barring Baraka) past and present are this to her, all of them wanting to use her instead to further their own ambitions. Even the ones supposedly aiding her rebellion are plotting to off her right afterwards, and she's the only one unable to see it.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Mileena's fighting style, regardless of variation, is based from Kano's Commando variant, seeing as both of them grapple like there's no tomorrow.
• Stripperiffic:
  • In a series of mostly Stripperiffic characters, her costumes stand out the most—to the point that she actually appeared in a special edition of Playboy featuring video game characters, donning her alt. Deception outfit.◊ Luckily, her veil was still on. When you think of it though, she has quite a Freudian Excuse to do so: she's likely to wear more revealing and provocative clothing than her "sister" Kitana as a form of compensation for her very, very horrifying lower face.
  • That being said, Mortal Kombat X tones this way down in comparison to her previous outfits (and arguably the excuse as well). She still has the most revealing outfit though.
• Swallowed Whole: Happens to the victims of her Man-Eater fatality, followed by her instantly spitting out their digested remains.
• Teleport Spam: She started out with her Kick From Above. She has an enhanced version called Tricky Teleport, where she teleports again and hits her opponent with a second kick from the other side. Her X-Ray in MKX adds a third kick, and she has a brutality where said kick destroys the opponent's face.
• Took a Level in Badass: Becomes Outworld's Empress after Shao Kahn's death, and according to Kotal Kahn, caused a lot of devastation in Outworld as a result due to her incompetence. She is later dethroned by Kotal Kahn, but she then starts a civil war, further plunging the realm into chaos.
• Tragic Villain:
  • In the original timeline, most characters think she's a crazed, insane and twisted freak of nature, so she's a little sensitive about her looks. She has a case of this towards Kitana, at the very least desiring her beauty and at most, wanting her entire life. Nearly all of Mileena's arcade endings before the reboot have her assuming Kitana's identity and seizing Edenia for herself.
  • In the new timeline, though she became Outworld's Kahnum after Shao Kahn's death, she proves to be an even worse ruler than him. But despite being a Psychopathic Womanchild, there's something sadly pathetic about the fact that she has no genuine supporters in her faction during the civil war in MKX. Of those that did support her, Baraka is dead, Rain was purposely driving her to destroy herself with Shinnok's amulet, and Tanya only supported her for Edenia's sake. As it turns out, due to her relative naïveté and weak claim to the throne, nearly everyone under her (barring Baraka) past and present are taking advantage of her to further their own ambitions, and are plotting to off her right afterwards, but she's the only one unable to see it. Despite her instabilities, she still seems devoted to serving out her 'father's' will, and it seems at times she only wants to rule because she was explicitly created as Shao Kahn's heir. The fact she's so completely obsessed with pursuing a hopeless cause with little to no support, all for the approval of a dead man, who likely saw her as nothing more than a tool, seems rather pitiable. Then she gets her head devoured by insects.
  • Her ending in 11 establishes that, in the end, she really just wants someone to love her, but she has a flawed understanding of what love means that leads her to try to dominate people into loving her. She finally gets it when she has a daughter, the first person in her life to love her without a "but" attached.
• Twin Telepathy: In 3, Shao Kahn brings Mileena back from the dead to track down Kitana, because Mileena is able to read Kitana's thoughts.
• Underboobs: In Deception and Armageddon. She was a wardrobe malfunction just waiting to happen.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: In Mortal Kombat: Conquest she's not related to Kitana at all in the story, instead being another servant of Shao Kahn disguised as Kitana via magic. While her overall personality is the same, it works against her, with such aggression causing her disguise to slip and reveal her true demonic face.
• The Vamp: One of the more fanservice-y characters, and fight for the bad guys. She seems to be turning this up for X, when she enlists Reiko and Goro.
• Villainesses Want Heroes:
  • Her pre-match quotes against Liu Kang in X.
  Mileena: "You will remember your love for me!"
  • Also, Kung Lao.
  Mileena: So, you and I...
• Voice Changeling: While Mileena's voice is generally ragged or raspy, she's shown in 11 to be able to perfectly mimic Kitana's voice, which makes sense given how Mileena's a clone (as well as the fact they share the same voice actress). Coupled with her looks outside her mouth, she could easily fool people into believing she is Kitana.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Owing to her abusive upbringing, she is desperate to make Shao Kahn proud even posthumously. This also extends to Sindel when she meets her in 11, where one intro where Sindel expresses disappointment in Mileena has her sounding distraught.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: She mysteriously disappears during MK9's Story Mode. She comes back later, leading a rebellion.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: She has yellow eyes (or muddy beige, as of 11), and she's a stealthy teleporting assassin.
• Younger Than They Look: Technically in MK9's timeline as she is fully formed right out of the lab. This also explains her Psychopathic Manchild tendencies, as she pretty much is a child raised by mass murderers.

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Tropes related to Mileena in The New Era

Tropes related to Mileena in The New Era

Tropes that appear across all of Mileena's appearances from Mortal Kombat 1 onwards.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: Since Mileena is a full-blooded Edenian in the New Era, she lacks her classical facial deformities and Glasgow Grin, being completely identical to her sister Kitana save for their clothing. In her normal state at least.
• Adaptational Heroism: In previous incarnations she was a violent, power-hungry clone of Kitana with few redeeming qualities. In the New Era, she legitimately cares for her family and kingdom and seeks a cure for her violent Tarkat disease. Once she takes the throne, she rules Outworld with the compassion that her previous selves were incapable of.
• Adaptational Intelligence: The previous timeline's Mileena was psychotic, impulsive and immature; when she gained Outworld's throne, she proved to be a dangerously unstable ruler, even compared to Shao Kahn. Here, she's much more composed and mature due to being raised as Sindel's heir and her rule as Empress is much more stable and well-received.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: As she's been made a heroic character in this timeline, many of her former enemies have become her allies.
  • She and Kitana have always been at odds in previous timelines, with Mileena being a half Tarkatan clone who spitefully envied Kitana's beauty, love and acceptance to an often murderous degree, whereas Kitana for her part despised Mileena as an abomination made in her image. Here, the two are genuine twin sisters who love and care for one another, with Kitana being dedicated to aiding and defending her older sister.
  • Kotal, introduced in X, was her Arch-Enemy in the previous timeline, with the two of them struggling for control of Outworld after he led a coup that ousted her from the throne. In the New Era, he now serves as one of her top generals after Shao's defection, commanding her armies alongside Kitana.
  • Inversely, the Mileena of the past timeline was fanatically loyal to Shao Kahn as a father figure and Shao seemed to reciprocate the love (as much as someone like Shao Kahn could) and was more than willing to avenge Mileena's death at D'Vorah's hands. Here, they have no familial relation and General Shao is attempting to stage a coup against Mileena, finding her unfit to hold the throne.
  • Since she is a genuine sister of Kitana instead of a clone, this makes her an actual daughter of Sindel and King Jerrod and is well aware of them while in the previous timelines, she was created long after their deaths.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Mileena in the original timeline was a Depraved Bisexual who peppered her dialogue with kombatants of both sexes with subtext, though she had a bit more attention towards the ladies. Mileena here seems to have feelings for Tanya and Tanya alone, to the point that when Johnny Cage tries to flirt with her in one of their versus intros, she outright tells him he's not her type, though at the same time in some of her pre-fight intros with Kenshi, her dialogue and delivery makes it sound like she's trying to flirt with him.
• Adaptational Ugliness: Her Tarkatan form is perhaps the most visually disturbing iteration yet, featuring not just the typical lipless grin of needlelike teeth but also a lower jaw that actually separates into fleshy mandibles.
• Adaptation Species Change: Because Tarkatans are now people infected with a deadly, disfiguring disease, rather than a separate race unto themselves, she was born as a full-blooded Edenian rather than being born half-Tarkatan. She was also born naturally rather than being a clone created by Shang Tsung. Ironically, this also applies to her after infection, as it technically makes her fully Tarkatan instead of a hybrid, complete with arm blades she previously lacked.
• Age Lift: Whether they were raised together or not, one consistent element in Mileena's backstory in previous games is that she was created after Kitana's birth. Here, she's the elder of the two twin sisters.
• Alien Arts Are Appreciated: She seems to have a bit of a fascination with Earthrealm technology, being amazed by Johnny's remote drone and, in the latter's ending, watching over the filming of his latest film with clear interest.
• Ambiguously Bi: While Mileena's romance with Tanya confirms her interest in women, whether she's also attracted to men (as she was in previous timelines) is harder to tell; in her intros, she tells Johnny Cage that he isn't her type and complains to Kitana about being expected to produce an heir, but whether her aversion to such things is due to a lack of interest in men or other factors (she's already seeing someone; she feels stifled by traditions; Johnny being Johnny) is unclear, though in some of her pre-fight intros with Kenshi, her dialogue and delivery makes it sound like she's trying to flirt with him.
• Anti-Hero: Downplayed, but Mileena's hot-bloodness and willingness to make use of her Tarkat-induced savagery in kombat mark her as a less straightforward hero than her sister Kitana. Her intros with Ashrah imply that while Kitana has no evil in her heart, Mileena might not be quite so pure.
• Battle Couple: Implied and downplayed. According to her bio, the Umgadi are sworn to chastity, so her relationship with Tanya being revealed to the public will speak doom for both of them. In the game's story proper, however, Tanya participates in battle as a Kameo Fighter during her chapter.
• The Berserker: When Tarkat takes hold, Mileena is reduced to a feral monster who blindly and savagely attacks everyone around her.
• Big Sister Instinct: Mileena is confirmed to be the older twin and when certain characters mock her about taking Kitana captive in their pre-battle banter, she is furious.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: While she primarily fights with her sais, as a full Tarkatan in the New Era^note As the condition is now a disease rather than a race Mileena is able to grow the same arm blades that Baraka does, which she utilizes in specific attacks.
• Body Horror: Her split jaw and other abominable facial features are the product of the Tarkat virus taking the toll on her.
• Breath Weapon: Disturbingly, as part of her Tarkat condition, Mileena can vomit bloody bile with enough pressure to stun her opponents.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': At some point, Mileena left the palace for a while to get some air. During this excusion, she somehow contracted Tarkat.
• Contrasting Replacement Character: To her previous timeline incarnations. The previous Mileena who inherited Outworld's throne in MKX was a childishly petty tyrant, in part due to never being properly groomed to be anything more than Shao Kahn's attack dog. Whereas New Era, Mileena has been raised as Sindel's heir since birth and possesses a strong sense of duty toward the well-being of her Empire, with one of her first actions as Empress being the recognition of the squalor that Tarkatans were subjected to and choosing to expose her own condition to the public in order to enact the change to vastly improve the quality of life within Tarkatan colonies.
• Dark Secret: Mileena's Tarkat infection is a fiercely protected secret for the royal family, to the point that Sindel refuses to allow Mileena to fight in the tournament (as tradition would normally demand) for fear of her condition becoming apparent. After the story, Mileena, now Empress herself, eventually reveals her condition to Outworld's people to destigmatize Tarkatans and make it easier to drum up support for them to be cured instead of shunned.
• A Day in the Limelight: She is the focus of Chapter 12, "Queen's Gambit".
• Disabled in the Adaptation: While a half-blooded Tarkatan clone of Kitana in the previous timelines, here Mileena is a full-blooded Edenian who was infected with Tarkat not so long ago.
• Easily Forgiven: Kenshi doesn't hold a grudge over Mileena blinding him, knowing that she wasn't in her right mind at the time and holding himself responsible for not being able to avoid it. For the most part considering she's still a more heroic figure here, Mileena is all the same genuinely remorseful for committing the deed in the first place.
• Everyone Can See It: Kitana easily notices Mileena and Tanya's romantic involvement and she warns her sister that other, less well-meaning individuals, could notice as well and use the relationship against her.
• Fake Defector: After the coup on Outworld is defeated, Mileena manages to catch Shang Tsung and Quan Chi off guard by pretending that it worked and that she threw in with the rebels to save her own skin, allowing the heroes to get the drop on the two sorcerers.
• Foil: For Sub-Zero; like Bi-Han, Mileena is the elder of two siblings, heir to her family's titles and responsibilities, as well as being a vicious kombatant when the situation calls for it, and, due to some issues with her lot in life, is more rebellious and hot-blooded than her more cool-headed and dutiful younger sibling. They're also both willing to violate tradition, though Mileena's transgression is far less heinous than Bi-Han's. Unlike Bi-Han, Mileena loves and is devoted to her family despite any difficulties between them; she's heartbroken by her mother's death while Bi-Han brags about choosing not to prevent his father's. She also lacks Sub-Zero's cold-blooded selfishness; while he forsook Earthrealm for the sake of his own glory, Mileena does her best to be a just ruler for Outworld. Mileena shows deep regret for her worst actions, while Bi-Han would sooner die than admit he did anything wrong. While they both assume their dead parent's role, Mileena seeks to atone for Sindel's genuine failings while Bi-Han spits on his father's noble legacy.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: One of the things that sets Mileena apart from Kitana at a glance, before the Tarkat has its effect at any rate, is a scar that cuts through her right eyebrow. It already preludes to her being the fiercer and more aggressive sister between the two of them.
• The High Queen: Becomes this after Sindel's death. Her reign is marked by compassion as one of its defining attributes, with her reaching out to marginalized groups such as Tarkatans, and then revealing her own affliction to the masses so that she can better enact positive change. She ends up being quite a popular ruler.
• Hot-Blooded: Mileena is much more passionate and argumentative than the more even-tempered Kitana, qualities which make some on Outworld think that Kitana would be better suited to be Sindel's heir than her older sister. Mileena's pre-fight intros have also her being a lot more temperamental and eager for violence than Kitana, who often tries to rein her in (although on the other hand, there was no word about her violently rejecting Johnny's flirting unlike her mother (who beat him up as a reaction to some kinda "proposition" he made) and sister (who slapped him across the face)).
• In Spite of a Nail: Even with her being Kitana's blood sister instead of a half-Tarkatan clone, she still contracts the disease that will eventually mutate her to possess her maw and bloodthirsty madness. If she'll succumb or not, and when, is a major subplot of the story.
• Mandatory Motherhood: As revealed in a pre-kombat dialogue with her sister, her courtiers already have started to pressure her into producing an heir.
• Monstrous Mandibles: In the most extreme version of her toothy grin yet, her mouth not only stretches almost to her ears, but her lower jaw can split open to reveal separate partitions with their own rows of fangs. It's never elaborated on whether this is a symptom of the early stages of Tarkat (as Baraka and the others have their traditional intact lipless jaws) or a byproduct of Shang Tsung's experiments to contain her infection.
• Ms. Fanservice: Downplayed compared to her previous self in the previous games. She wears a Tamer and Chaster outfit and isn't as heavily sexualized compared to her counterparts in the older games. However, so long as Mileena isn't suffering bouts of bloodthirsty rage from the Tarkat disease, she is a gorgeous looking woman who wears a skin tight suit with high heels and a rather generous display of her chest.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In one of her pre-battle exchanges with him, she is shown to be deeply and genuinely remorseful over her role in Kenshi being blinded.
• Noodle Incident: The full details of when and how she became infected with Tarkat are never revealed. It is only stated that she snuck out of the palace one night and that something happened to her during that unauthorized excursion resulting in her Tarkat infection.
• Queer Colors: Mileena, one of the game's openly LGBTQ+ characters, wears fuchsia, a color from the bisexual pride flag.
• Prepare to Die: In a pre-kombat dialogue with Quan Chi, she threatens to kill him "in a most heinous way".
• Rebellious Princess: Mileena feels stifled by the expectations and traditions of her role as Sindel's heir, to the point of once leaving the palace for some air (which is how she caught Tarkat) and scoffing at the Umgadi traditions that forbid her and Tanya's romance.
• Redeeming Replacement: As Empress, Mileena makes an effort to fix the mistakes Sindel made, especially where her fellow Tarkatans are concerned; where Sindel hid Mileena's condition, Mileena herself eventually comes out as a victim of Tarkat, managing to garner sympathy for those suffering from the disease and making better strides to find a cure than Sindel ever did.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: In past timelines, Mileena was a half-Tarkatan clone of Kitana created by Shang Tsung. Here, she's Kitana's older twin sister and legitimate heir to Sindel.
• Related in the Adaptation: In previous timelines, Mileena had no connection to King Jerrod beyond being a clone of his daughter. Here, he's her biological father.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: In addition to being heir to Outworld's throne, Mileena is a warrior in her own right (an intro with Johnny Cage even has her wonder what why anyone wouldn't train a princess to fight) who fights for her realm when the need arises. As Empress, she proves to be socially active as well; after hearing about the struggles of Tarkatans from Baraka, Mileena decides to reveal her own condition to Outworld, helping to improve the lives of those suffering from Tarkat.
• Secret Relationship: As Kitana notes, romantic entanglements with the Umgadi are forbidden, which is why Mileena and Tanya at least try to be subtle about their relationship.
• Spirited Competitor: Mileena wants to fight in the tournament to bring glory to Outworld, even moreso than the fact that the heir to the throne fights. She doesn't do so out of any malice or desire for war though; she simply wants to win.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Tarkat as a disease takes the form of physical mutations geared toward violence, such as a a gaping maw full of fangs or razor sharp claws and boney arm blades, as well as a insatiable desire to kill and consume others, and these symptoms are also aggravated by the physical act of violence and getting hurt. This means that whenever Mileena's pressured in a fight during the story, the symptoms of her condition start to manifest and she turns into an almost mindlessly feral predator. Certain versus interactions indicate that she's attempting to learn to actively control this so that she can wield her Tarkatan mutations to her advantage.
• Took a Level in Badass: She not only gets her own chapter as a playable character but even managing to defeat such heavy-hitters as Ermac, Shang Tsung, Dark Raiden and Dark Sindel in it.
• Troll: In the pre-kombat dialogues, she thinks about bringing the (reformed) demoness Ashrah to court just to mess with the archdukes, but both Ashrah and Syzoth refuse to take part in court intrigues.
• Vocal Dissonance: Even though she's a much kinder, heroic character now, Mileena's raspy, unpleasant voice from previous games, clearly intended for the villain she once was, is maintained regardless. In the story mode, she only gains it during the moments of her disease taking over, becoming a bloodthirsty maniac, while the serum is active, she sounds completely normal. However this not the case for her intro interactions, making her attempts to be sincere fall a little flat.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: Downplayed. Mileena is the heir to the throne, which means Sindel is more stern and critical with her in order to prepare her for it. Though their relationship is broadly still supportive and loving this, along with persistent rumors at court that her sister is more fit for the throne than her, has left Mileena with lingering concerns that she is The Unfavorite between herself and Kitana.
  Li Mei: If your mother was harsh, it was because she loved you.
  Mileena: (Scoffing) It was because she doubted me.

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Invasion Mileena

Invasion Mileena

A Mileena from an alternate timeline, having her Shang Tsung's intelligence she later seeks to hunt for the thrill. She serves as the antagonist of Season 4 of Mortal Kombat 1’s Invasion Mode.

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• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: She has Kitana's beauty, Shang Tsung's brains, and the Tarkatan brawns.
• Informed Attribute: She is shown to have Tarkatan blades from her wrists, no other Mileena has that.
• Navel Deep Neck: This version of Mileena has a pink and gold body suit that shows most of her stomach.

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