Kitana

Kitana

Series	Mortal Kombat series
First game	Mortal Kombat II (1993)
Voiced by	Cree Summer (MK: DotR) Lita Lopez (MK:SM) Lorrisa Julianus (MKvDC)[citation needed]
Live action actor(s)	Katalin Zamiar (MKII) Becky Gable (UMK3, MKT, MKG) Talisa Soto (films) Dara Tomanovich (MK: Conquest) Audie England (MK: Conquest) Jennifer DeCosta (Live Tour) Lexi Alexander (as "Lexi Mirai") [1] (Live Tour)
Fictional information
Fighting styles	Eagle Claw (MK:DA, MK:U) Ba Gua (MK:DA, MK:U, MK:A)
Weapons	Steel Fans (MKII, UMK3, MKT, MK:DA, MK:SM, MK:U, MK:A) Flying Blade (MKG)

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

Contents 1 Overview 2 Storyline 2.1 Mortal Kombat II 2.2 Mortal Kombat 3 2.3 Mortal Kombat Gold 2.4 Deadly Alliance 2.5 Deception 2.6 Armageddon 2.7 Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe 3 Appearances in other media 3.1 Film 3.2 Television 3.3 Comic books 4 Character development 5 Game information 6 Reception 7 References

Overview

A primary hero in the Mortal Kombat saga, Kitana is the princess of Edenia and the daughter of Queen Sindel. She is over 10,000 years old, although she appears to be in her early to mid twenties. Through the years, she has risen to great importance, first as the loyal stepdaughter of Shao Kahn; then his enemy, tearing herself away from his grasp and freeing her home realm of Edenia; and then leading an army into Outworld to combat any chance of Shao Kahn rising to power again.

Driven by a search for justice, redemption, and peace, Kitana is a strong combination of discipline, intelligence, love, and perseverance. She shared a subtle love interest with Earthrealm champion Liu Kang until he was murdered by the Deadly Alliance, though they were briefly reunited prior to his resurrection. She has aligned herself on the good side, despite her loyalty to Shao Kahn for most of her life until learning the truth about her past and real family. Kitana has an evil clone named Mileena and they are arch-enemies.

Storyline

Mortal Kombat II

Kitana first appeared in Mortal Kombat II as Shao Kahn's daughter and personal assassin, working alongside her twin sister Mileena. After years of loyally serving Kahn, Kitana uncovers the truth about her past. She discovers that she is actually the daughter of Edenia's King Jerrod and Queen Sindel, taken as Shao Kahn's own when he conquered their realm. She learns that Mileena is not her sister but a grotesque clone created by Shang Tsung. Kitana vows to overthrow Shao Kahn and enters the tournament. Her actions come under the suspicion of Mileena, who spies upon her, and when she discovers that she is no longer loyal to Kahn, they fight and Kitana kills her.

Mortal Kombat 3

During the events of Mortal Kombat 3 (where she appears in Liu Kang's ending) and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (in which she was added as a playable character), Kitana is put on trial for treason for Mileena's murder. She escapes and joins the warriors of Earth to free Sindel who has been resurrected and being used by Kahn to invade Earth. After convincing her friend Jade to join her, Kitana frees Sindel from Shao Kahn's hold, leading to his defeat at the hands of Liu Kang. Kitana and Sindel then free Edenia from Outworld.

Mortal Kombat Gold

Their jubilance is shortlived, as during Mortal Kombat Gold, Shinnok and his grand vizier Quan Chi invade from the Netherealm. Kitana is taken prisoner, but manages to escape and rejoin her Earthrealm allies. Shinnok's forces are defeated, and with Edenia once more free, Kitana finally proposes to Liu Kang and offered to rule Edenia with him as King and Queen. He reluctantly rejects her, seeing his true duty as Champion of Earth.

After Shinnok's defeat, Kitana learned that Shao Kahn had survived his defeat on Earthrealm and was trying to regain his strength in Outworld. Knowing when he regained his power he would threaten Edenia again, she forged an alliance with Goro and the Shokan. The combined armies wiped out much of Kahn's forces, but eventually were in stalemate.

Deadly Alliance

In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Kitana learns that Shao Kahn has been slain by unknown assassins. Thinking her fight is finally over, she begins to journey back to Edenia, hoping she can finally live in peace. However, she encounters Kung Lao who tells her of the "Deadly Alliance" of Quan Chi and Shang Tsung, who are responsible for Shao Kahn's demise and are planning to revive the Undead Army of the legendary Dragon King. She also learns of the murder of Liu Kang.

Despite Kitana's grief upon learning of Liu Kang's death at the hands of the Deadly Alliance, she again joins with her old Earthrealm allies against the new threat. Eventually, Kitana and her allies assault Shang Tsung's palace where she faces Quan Chi one on one. Unfortunately, despite her new and improved skills gained from training with Bo' Rai Cho, Kitana is outmatched by the powerful sorcerer and killed alongside her allies. Shortly after, they would be resurrected by Onaga, the legendary Dragon King himself, who also puts a powerful spell on them, turning them into his loyal servants.

Deception

In Mortal Kombat: Deception Onaga uses Kitana to imprison her mother Sindel, knowing the queen would not fight her daughter. Luckily, Sindel was freed by Jade, and together they fled to Outworld where they attempted to find a way to defeat Onaga and free Kitana from his evil influence. Unknown to Kitana, Liu Kang's spirit, which was able to remain amongst the living due to the bond he shared with her,^[2] found himself a new ally and friend in Ermac, and the two had embarked on a mission to save their allies as well.

Armageddon

Ermac and Liu Kang are successful in freeing Kitana and the other Earth heroes. Afterward, as she travels back to Edenia, she encounters Blaze, who warns her of a coming new danger that will threaten all the realms. Weary of constant battle, Kitana is disheartened, but Blaze assures her that the wars will soon be over. Following this warning, Kitana returns in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, fighting alongside Edenia.

During the events, she was accompanied by Liu Kang's spirit in order to keep him whole until there was a way to reunite him with his body. They later met up with Nightwolf, who was still drained from using his shamanic powers to draw Onaga's soul into the Netherrealm, and offered to relieve Kitana of her burden by using what magic he had left and took on the responsibility of looking after Liu Kang. Therefore, Liu Kang and Kitana parted ways once again.

In her Armageddon ending, Kitana defeats Blaze and becomes the champion of the Elder Gods. She goes on to form an all-female fighting force consisting of herself, Sindel, Jade, Sonya and Li Mei. They set out to defeat the forces of Darkness and trap them in the Netherrealm forever.^[3]

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

In the crossover video game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Kitana is transported to Metropolis, where she encounters Wonder Woman. Due to the "kombat rage", Kitana hallucinates, believing Wonder Woman to be an "assassin of Outworld" and challenges her. After being defeated, Kitana flees to elsewhere in Metropolis, where she is found and defeated by Scorpion and brought to Raiden's temple, where she explains seeing the fusion of Shao Khan and Darkseid; Dark Khan. Kitana joins the rest of the Kombatants in traveling to the fused realms of Outworld and Apokolips, and fights alongside them against the DC heroes and villains. She is one of the many knocked unconscious while Raiden and Superman battle and destroy Dark Khan.

In her ending, Raiden grants Kitana and her Edenian warriors a new home on Earth--Shang Tsung's abandoned island. The island, which formerly served as the tournament battlegrounds, was converted into a "bastion of beauty and light" and named Argus Island, in honor of the Edenian protector god.

Appearances in other media

Film

Despite being an upper-echelon character in the video games' storyline, Kitana was a supporting character (and unmasked) in both films, and was played by Talisa Soto. She appeared as an unwanted companion of Shang Tsung in the first film, and spent most of the sequel under Kahn's capture before facing Sindel in the final battle. Her war fans briefly appeared as her primary weapon in the sequel, but her Edenian background, prior loyalty to Kahn, and relationship with both Mileena and Jade were ignored in both pictures; she was instead described simply as being the rightful heir to the Outworld throne.

Television

Kitana made three appearances in the live-action TV series Mortal Kombat: Conquest, with the role shared by Dara Tomanovich and Audie England. She is fully aware of her Edenian past and the deaths of her parents at Kahn's hands, and works covertly to prevent the Emperor from conquering realms while feigning her allegiance to him.

Kitana was one of the lead characters in the 1996 animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, in which she was unmasked^[4] and voiced by Cree Summer. Similar to the films, Kitana is never shown to have even been loyal to Kahn at any time in her life.

Comic books

Kitana appears as a secondary character in Malibu's Mortal Kombat comic books. Her backstory is slightly altered; she is still princess of Edenia and daughter of Jerrod and Sindel, but an adult when Shao Kahn killed Jerrod and seized the realm. Kitana is also under a spell induced by Kahn that makes her forget her past life and believe she is Kahn's daughter. She first appeared during the Goro: Prince of Pain miniseries, joining Mileena, Baraka, and Reptile in searching for Goro in Outworld. During the Battlewave series, Kitana attempted to rebel against Kahn with the assistance of Kung Lao, Baraka, and Sub-Zero.

Character development

Kitana was played by Katalin Zamiar in Mortal Kombat II, and the original costume used for filming was blue. Her mask had to be attached to her nose with double-sided tape while her boots were held in place with rubber bands in order to keep them from falling down. Becky Gable took over the part for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, for which motion capture footage was shot with a red outfit.

Kitana's signature "Kiss of Doom" Fatality was, according to Ed Boon in a webchat interview, inspired by the demise of the villain in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die. In Mortal Kombat: Deception, Boon described Kitana and Mileena as the female equivalents of Scorpion and Sub-Zero.

Game information

Kitana was one of the most popular characters in Mortal Kombat II and was the character that many fans used because of her combos which tended to end with a fan throw in mid air. During the early production runs of MKII, Kitana became notorious as an unbeatable character, as her "fan lift" move could be done in such a way as to completely immobilize the opponent in the corner of the screen, allowing the player using Kitana to defeat the opponent with a series of uncontested punches. Changes were made in later versions of the game to eliminate this, as it tended to unbalance the game. Ed Boon claimed in a trading card for Kitana that it was amazing seeing people doing combos with her that even he hadn't thought of.

After her debut, Kitana was mostly meant or mentioned to return as a playable character in most sequels, but was often removed due to several circumstances, however she has always returned in the port or an update to the sequels that she's supposed to appear but cut down. She was going to return in Mortal Kombat 3, but she, along with all other palette-swapped ninja characters, were cut down from the game due to Midway's strict policy about ninja-inspired material at that time^{[citation needed]}, however she returned in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

She was also supposed to be in Mortal Kombat 4 (along with Noob Saibot and Kano), but was taken out in favor of the new character Tanya. She was not, however, completely removed from the game: her rendering was still used in Liu Kang's ending, and players could fight as her in the Nintendo 64 and PC versions of the game via a cheat device. Later on, she was added to the roster of Mortal Kombat Gold, an update to MK4.

After her appearance in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, she was again stated to be featured in Mortal Kombat: Deception. However, it was decided that the storyline would change and have her held captive by Onaga in favor of the reappearance of Jade, who has not been featured in many Mortal Kombat games, though Kitana later became playable in Mortal Kombat: Unchained, the PlayStation Portable port of Deception.

Reception

This section requires expansion.

UGO.com ranked Kitana at number twenty-eight in their "Top 50 Videogame Hotties" article, stating "Kitana has her curves in all the right places, and her signature fans will keep you cool when things start to heat up."^[5] GameDaily include her in a list of "Ten Babes Who Should and 10 Babes Who Shouldn't Meet Your Mom", stating that the combination of hiding her face with a mask and her sheer deadliness would be met with displeasure.^[6] They also included her in their "Babe of the Week: Brunettes" piece.^[7]

References

v • d • e Mortal Kombat characters Goro · Johnny Cage · Kano · Kitana · Kung Lao · Liu Kang · Mileena · Noob Saibot · Raiden · Reptile · Scorpion · Shang Tsung · Shao Kahn · Sonya Blade · Sub-Zero List of characters · List of minor characters