Characters / Mortal Kombat – Mileena

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

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; Kaprice Imperial, Face Model; Toni Rodríguez, Latin American Spanish)

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.

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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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Artificial Human: She was created by Shang Tsung as a clone of Kitana.
• 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.
• Bonus 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.
• 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. Think of Bullet Seed, only with nails...
• 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.
• Cloning Blues: She was created originally to replace Kitana, but instead was made to be her watchdog. Her Arcade Mode ending in MKX reveals that Shang Tsung made at least several other working copies. This can also be seen in Shang Tsung's Flesh Pits in the previous game with one near-finished Mileena held in a stasis tube.
• 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.
• 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.
• Dark Chick: She seems to have this role to the villains in 9.
• Death Is Cheap: Executed by D'Vorah in MKX but brought back by Kronika in MK 11, 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 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 Is Sexy: Invoked Trope. She uses this to her advantage. She is evil and dresses and acts far more provocatively than her good sister.
• 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.
• Has Two Mommies: Or daddies, in a sense. Shang Tsung may have created her under Shao Kahn's orders, but Mileena is undoubtedly devoted to Kahn instead. Mileena becomes one of two mommies herself in her ending in 11, raising her daughter alongside Tanya. It's unknown if Tanya is the girl's biological parent, though.
• 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.
• 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: To the point of posing topless (in her Deception alt., one of her skimpiest outfits to date; her nipples were tastefully covered by her sais) for Playboy. See Stripperiffic below.
• 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.)
• Overly-Long Tongue: She has one in 11.
• 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.
• Psycho Pink: In contrast to Kitana's Blue Is Heroic attire, some of Mileena's attire is pink.
• Prim and Proper Bun: Her hairstyle (shared with every other female ninja who existed as of MK3) in MK3.
• 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).
• Race Lift: Indirectly, as a result of Kitana's own Race Lifting in 11. And more inexplicably still in the latest film of the franchise where she's incarnated by 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.
• 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.
  • Her variations in X are Ethereal, Piercing, and Ravenous.
• 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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