Kitana (Princess Kitana/Lady Kitana) is a recurring player and a one-time boss character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. One of the lead characters of the Mortal Kombat saga, Kitana is the princess of the other-dimensional realm of Edenia and the daughter of Queen Sindel. She also has a role of romantic interest for the series' primary hero Liu Kang and has an evil twin named Mileena. Kitana has appeared in almost every Mortal Kombat media, becoming one of the most popular characters in the franchise and gaining critical acclaim as one of the most attractive women of video games in general.

In video games [link]

As a member of the Edenian race, Kitana is over 10,000 years old, although she appears to be a young woman.^[2] Throughout the years, she has risen to great importance, first as the loyal stepdaughter of the evil Outworld emperor 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 Kahn rising to power again.^[3] Kitana shared a subtle love interest with Earthrealm champion Liu Kang until he was killed by the Deadly Alliance, though they were briefly reunited prior to his resurrection. Despite her loyalty to Shao Kahn for most of her life, she has aligned herself on the good side after learning the truth about her past and real family. A disfigured clone of Kitana, given the name Mileena, was introduced as Kitana's twin sister, and has been a prominent arch-rival in the original game series' timeline.^{[note 1]}

Kitana first appears in Mortal Kombat II (1993) as Shao Kahn's personal assassin, working alongside her supposed twin sister Mileena.^[4] After centuries of loyally serving Kahn, Kitana uncovers the truth about her past, discovering that she is actually the daughter of Edenia's former rulers King Jerrod and Queen Sindel, and was taken as Shao Kahn's own when he conquered their realm. She also learns that Mileena was never her real sister, but a grotesque clone of her created at her adopted father's behest by his sorcerer Shang Tsung.^[4] Originally intended to replace Kitana should she ever learn of her true birthright, Mileena emerged flawed and Kahn instead decided to make her monitor Kitana's loyalty to him. According to the semi canonical spin-off game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (2005), after Kitana (voiced by Lita Lopez) was found no longer loyal to Kahn, she is put into a spell-induced trance and forced to fight the Earthrealm heroes anyway (along with Mileena and Jade), before being freed from this state by the Shaolin warrior monks Liu Kang and Kung Lao. Eventually, the sisters clash and Kitana emerges victorious, killing Mileena.

During the events of Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), Kitana is put on trial for treason and the murder of Mileena.^[5] Before a verdict and sentence could be reached, however, she escapes from Shao Kahn's dungeons and joins the warriors of Earthrealm to free her mother Sindel, who has been resurrected and used by Kahn to invade Earth. After convincing her close friend Jade to join her, Kitana locates and frees Sindel from Shao Kahn's mental control,^[5] leading to his defeat at the hands of Liu Kang. Kitana, Sindel, and Jade then liberate Edenia from Outworld. Their jubilance is short-lived, as during Mortal Kombat Gold (1999), Shinnok and his grand vizier Quan Chi escapes imprisonment in the Netherrealm and invades Edenia.^[6] Betrayed by the traitorous Edenian Tanya, Kitana, Sindel, and Jade are taken prisoner, but Kitana manages to escape^[7] and rejoin her Earthrealm allies. Shinnok's forces are eventually defeated by the joint efforts of Kitana and her allies. With Edenia freed once again, Kitana finally proposes to Liu Kang, offering him the chance to rule Edenia at her side as King and Queen, but he reluctantly rejects her offer, seeing his true duty as champion of Earth. After Shinnok's defeat, Kitana captures Mileena but learns that Shao Kahn has survived his defeat in Earthrealm and is regaining power. Knowing that Kahn would attempt to reclaim Edenia once he was strong enough, she forges an alliance with Goro, prince of the Outworld race Shokan. The combined armies of the Edenians and Shokans defeat much of Kahn's forces, but are eventually locked in stalemate.

In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002), Kitana, leading a preemptive strike against Shao Kahn's forces,^[8] learns that he has been slain by unknown assassins.^[9] Thinking her fight is at an end, she begins the journey back to Edenia, hoping to finally live in peace. However, on the way she encounters Kung Lao, who tells her of the plans of the Deadly Alliance, Quan Chi and Shang Tsung, who are responsible for Liu Kang and Shao Kahn's demise and are attempting to revive the undead army of the legendary Onaga the Dragon King. Despite Kitana's grief, she once again rejoins the Earthrealm warriors against the new threat. Eventually, Kitana and her allies assault Shang Tsung's palace, where she faces Quan Chi one-on-one. Despite her improved fighting skills, gained from training with Bo' Rai Cho, Kitana is outmatched by the powerful sorcerer and killed alongside her allies. Shortly after, they are resurrected and magically enslaved by Onaga,^[10] who then sends Mileena to impersonate Kitana as the princess of Edenia.

In Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004), Onaga uses Kitana to defeat and imprison her mother, Sindel, knowing that the queen would not fight her daughter. Sindel is freed from her own dungeon by Jade, and together they flee to Outworld where they attempt to find a way to defeat Onaga and free Kitana from his influence. Unknown to anyone at the time, Liu Kang's spirit was able to remain amongst the living due to the bond he shared with Kitana.^[11] He found himself a new ally and friend in Ermac, as the two embark on a mission to save their allies as well. Ermac and Liu Kang are successful in freeing Kitana and the other Earthrealm heroes. Afterward, as Kitana travels back to Edenia, she encounters Blaze, who warns her of a coming new danger that will threaten all the realms and advices her to assemble the forces of light into battle. Weary of constant battle, Kitana is disheartened, but Blaze assures her that the wars will soon be over. Following this warning, Kitana returns in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (2006), accompanied by Liu Kang's spirit in order to keep him whole until there was a way to reunite him with his body. They later meet with Nightwolf, who offers to relieve Kitana of her burden to take Liu Kang's soul into himself, allowing her to fight against the coming evil. Kitana ultimately perishes with the rest of her allies during the battle.

In the uncanonical crossover game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008), Kitana is transported to Metropolis, where she encounters her counterpart from the DC Universe, Wonder Woman. Due to the "kombat rage", Kitana hallucinates, believing Wonder Woman to be an assassin sent from Outworld and challenged 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 tells about seeing the fusion of Shao Kahn and Darkseid: Dark Kahn. Kitana then joins the rest of the Kombatants in traveling to the fused realms of Outworld and Apokolips. She fights alongside them against the DC heroes and villains, and is one of the many knocked unconscious while Raiden and Superman battle and destroy Dark Kahn.

Kitana re-appears in Mortal Kombat, the 2011 re-imagining of the earliest three Mortal Kombat games,^[12] voiced by Karen Strassman and motion-captured by Brenda Barrie.^[13] In the game's story mode, she and Jade are sent by Shao Kahn to compete in Mortal Kombat. Kitana battles Liu Kang in an attempt to insure that he will not reach the final stages of the first tournament, but is defeated; expecting to die, she is surprised by his decision to spare her. Later, during the second tournament, Kitana is approached by Raiden, who informs her that her supposed past as Shao Kahn's daughter is a lie. In Shang Tsung's Flesh Pits, she comes upon a newly-created Mileena. Before Kahn, she accuses Shang Tsung of attempting to replace her, and is shocked to learn that the Emperor himself ordered Mileena's creation, as he imprisons Kitana in the palace and commands his "true daughter" to be brought to him. However, Kitana is soon freed by Jade and the two escape to Earthrealm to join their new allies against the forces of Outworld. They assist in the battle for Earthrealm, but are killed alongside several others by Kitana's corrupted mother, Sindel. In the end, she is shown to be one of the warriors that are resurrected by Quan Chi in the Netherrealm to battle Raiden.

Design and development [link]

Kitana's prototype design in Mortal Kombat II was the work of John Tobias, the main Mortal Kombat designer of the 1990s. Her origins as character were revealed in 2011 by Tobias, who disclosed that she started out as an unplayable herald-type character called Kitsune who was created during the early development of the original Mortal Kombat game back in 1991. Tobias' original inspiration while creating Kitsune was the character of Princess Mariko from Jordan Mechner’s 1984 video game Karateka (Mechner commented: "Ha thanks, that's awesome! Kitsune/Kitana vs Mariko... not sure who I'd bet on!"^[15]). Kitsune "was going to fit into the story as Shang Lao’s (Tsung) princess daughter - the spoil of victory for winning the tournament", who would betray her father after she fell for Liu Kang, but Shang became a minion of Shao Kahn when the story was expanded for MKII and Kitsune was renamed Kitana and made Kahn's step-child. In Tobias' design sketch, she wielded a single fan and wore a Chinese dress.^[16] The name Kitsune was rejected for it being a Japanese word and thus not fitting with "Shang and Shao who were both Chinese in origin" (before the games "ultimately became a hodgepodge of nonsensical Asian mythological hooha anyway"), and the name of Kitana was created as "a combo of Kitsune & Katana" that would sound "generically Asian enough."^[17]

According to Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon, Kitana's signature "Kiss of Doom" Fatality (one of her finishing moves in almost all the games featuring her, except of MK2011) was inspired by the demise of the villain Dr. Kananga in the James Bond film Live and Let Die. Boon said it was his favourite Fatality in the game and a best example of their attempt to combine violent and humorous elements in the game.^[18] He also described Kitana and Mileena as the female equivalents of Scorpion and Sub-Zero (the series' two most iconic male characters, with a fierce rivalry of their own).^[19] Kitana's signature weapons became a pair of razor-edged "Steel Fans", inspired by Japanese war fans and originally being fully metal. In Mortal Kombat Gold, Kitana uses the throwing weapon "Flying Blade", which is similar to Tanya's sharp boomerang due to their shared development history in MK4.^{[note 3]} In UMK3 her Animality transformation-animal is a small black cat. Following her debut, Kitana was repeatedly removed from the further sequels due to various circumstances, only to always return in a port or an update, such as it was in the case of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (following MK3), Gold (following MK4) and Mortal Kombat: Unchained (following Deception).^{[note 4]}

For Mortal Kombat II, Kitana was originally portrayed by Katalin Zamiar, whose base outfit used for creating the game's female ninja characters was Kitana's blue,^[20] as Kitana, Mileena and Jade all were given the identical, bodysuit based costumes in MKII, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy, differing from each other through the use of palette swap technique while creating their digitized sprite images.^{[note 2]} In this game, Kitana was clad in a simple blue leotard, along with matching knee-high boots, long gloves, and a headband. Becky Gable took over the role from Zamiar in UMK3, for which the motion capture footage for all of female ninja characters had her wearing a more neutrally-colored dark red outfit. In this game Kitana's leotard had added details, including a laced chest opening, armbands, earrings, and a more liberal use of black, while the headband was dropped and her hair was tied in a tight bun.

For her first 3D (and the first unmasked) appearance in Gold, her face was modelled after Talisa Soto, who was Kitana's actress in the films, and clad in a slightly modified leotard from UMK3. In Deadly Alliance, Unchained and Armageddon, Kitana wore a more regal costume featuring a lavender leotard with even more exposed cleavage and stiletto heels on her boots. In MKvsDCU, Kitana wears a blue-and-black leotard and her long hair is held by a ribbon. In MK2011, she wears a cerulean-colored bustier with silver trimmings, laced together in a way reminiscent of UMK3, a matching thong with a long flowing sarong at the front, and a coronet in place of MKII headband. Since Deadly Alliance, Kitana's hair is much longer and is often shown to be dark-brown instead of just black (as in her early appearances) and is also usually tied into a braid, which became her most often used hairstyle next to a bun. Her loose hair did not reappear since MKII until MK2011, in which her once-straight hair became wavy. Kitana's UMK3 outfit returns in MK2011, first as an exclusive costume in the pre-order bonuses and then later through downloadable content,^[21] while the MKII-style retro outfits for her and Jade were also later included as part of another, free downloadable package,^[22] jokingly described by NetherRealm Studios as "swimsuit party".^[23] These two post-release additions brought the numbers of Kitana's and Jade's costumes in MK2011 to four for each of them, equaling them with Mileena in having the highest number of alternate looks in any game in the series up at this point.

Gameplay [link]

In MK: Shaolin Monks, Kitana is fought as a boss character twice during the game's main story mode and one of unlockable player characters for the versus mode. Besides the hallmark "Kiss of Death", her other most common Fatality is an execution through decapitation with a fan, which has been featured in almost all the games she was included in, with exception of Deadly Alliance and MKvsDCU (this Fatality returns in MK2011, in which Kitana cuts off the opponent's arms before a beheading). She is one of the only five characters to perform a kata in the game's attract mode of Deadly Alliance.

Most of Kitana's traditional special moves utilize her twin fan weapons, used as both a melee weapon and as a thrown projectile, and to lift the enemies in the air.^{[note 5]} According to the GamePro strategy guide, Kitana is only the seventh best of the 12 fighters in MKII (citing her devastating combos, powerful "Fan Throw" move, and good sweep and reach hindered by slow release of the fan-based special moves and limited attack patterns),^[24] but she was picked as the best MKII fighter by the editors of Sega Power and Super Play.^[25] In UMK3 (and, by extension, Trilogy), however, she got no new special moves as opposed to most of the other characters. According to Sega Saturn Magazine, "Kitana's lack of enhancements doesn't make her as exciting to play as some of the other characters, though her excellent juggle combos still work - and they can do loads of damage";^[26] according to Nintendo Power, "with such a small repertoire, Princess Kitana will be sorely challenged by experienced warriors", even as her Fan Toss is faster than many other projectiles.^[27] Over the time, however, Kitana has received the received some of special moves that used to be typically associated with Mileena, including a ground-roll attack (introduced in MKvsDCU and based on Mileena's classic "Rolling Thunder") and teleportation-based moves (since Shaolin Monks).

According to Prima Games' official guide for Shaolin Monks, Kitana is "quick enough for moderate damage, and has some of the most potent special moves in the game", but needs to be fighting at close range.^[28] In Armageddon, however, Kitana is "a tough character to win with" and "like many of the other low tier character types, she's lacking in almost every aspect" (even as she "is a little better on defense than she is on offense"); she was rated overall only 4/10 for this game.^[29] Prima's official guide for MKvsDCU, on the other hand, called her "one of the more dangerous characters in the game due to her speed and extremely effective move-set."^[30] According to Prima's official guide for MK2011, in this game Kitana is a capable fighter who "is at her deadliest in the corner" and who is best played against Baraka and Cyber Sub-Zero.^[31]

In other media [link]

Kitana appears as a secondary character in Malibu's 1994-1995 Mortal Kombat comic books. She was the subject of the special issue Kitana and Mileena: Sister Act, in which her backstory was revealed as slightly altered in comparison to the MKII canon story. In the comic books, Kitana is the princess of Edenia and daughter of Jerrod and Sindel, but she was already an adult when Shao Kahn killed Jerrod and seized the realm, putting her under a spell that made her forget her past life and believe she is Kahn's daughter. Kitana first appeared during the Goro: Prince of Pain story arc, joining Mileena, Baraka and Reptile in search for Goro in Outworld. During the Battlewave miniseries, she attempted to rebel against Kahn with the assistance of Kung Lao, Baraka and Sub-Zero. Unlike in the game series' continuity, in the comic series Kitana has no interactions with neither Liu Kang nor Jade. Instead, she has a closer relation with Kung Lao (and Shang Tsung even attempts to exploit this while taking Kitana's form).^[32] She also appears in Midway's stand-alone MK4 prologue comic book published in 1997, in which she is arranges peace between the races of Shokan and Centaurians while being secretly watched over by Goro, and in the game tie-in title Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe: Beginnings, drawn by Tobias and published by DC Comics in 2008.^[33]

Kitana was one of the characters featured in the 1995 stage show Mortal Kombat: Live Tour, played by Lexi Alexander (credited as "Lexi Mirai"),^[34][35] and Jennifer DeCosta.

Despite being a major character in the video games' storyline, Princess Kitana was only a supporting character in both Mortal Kombat live-action films. In the movies, Kitana was portrayed by the 28-year-old Talisa Soto, appearing unmasked and wearing less revealing, all-black costumes (including a long black dress). In the first film, released in 1995, Kitana was introduced as a companion of Shang Tsung, but eventually joined Liu Kang and the Earthrealm warriors to help them defeat the sorcerer. Kitana spent most of the 1997 sequel film Mortal Kombat: Annihilation in Kahn's capivity, captured by Scorpion, before facing Sindel during the final battle. Kitana's steel folding fans (for the first time redesigned into several blades on each one, instead of solid all-metal fans) briefly appeared as her weapon in the second film. In the films, Kitana does engage in a romantic relationship with Liu Kang, but her Edenian background, prior loyalty to Kahn, and relations with Mileena and Jade were ignored in both pictures in which she was instead described simply as being the rightful heir to the Outworld's throne.

In the 1995 novel Mortal Kombat by Martin Delrio, an expanded novelization of the first film, Kitana is introduced in a new new scene, in which she is described as dressed in "scarlet-red silk ... stitched all around with a golden thread." Shang Tsung also tells Goro that Kitana "alone keeps alive the memory" of Edenia before Kahn's conquest and "uses her age and her position as a shield to cover her rebellion."

Kitana is one of the lead characters in the 1996 television animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, set roughly in the movies' version of the MK universe, in which she did again appear unmasked even if clad in a black-blue leotard-type outfit more reminiscent of the one she wore in MKII,^[36] and was voiced by Cree Summer. Similar to the films, she is never shown to have ever been loyal to Kahn in the cartoon. In the episode "Skin Deep", a male ninja character Rain is introduced as her former love interest turned enemy. The series' finale involved Kitana leading a rebellion from Outworld against Shao Kahn's rule.

Kitana made several appearances in the non-canonical prequel live-action television series Mortal Kombat: Konquest (1998–1999), her role shared by the 27-year-old Audie England (the episodes "Vengeance" and "Shadow of a Doubt") and by Dara Tomanovich (in "The Essence"), with Christine Rodriguez being their stunt double.^[37] In this series, she is fully aware of her Edenian past and the deaths of her parents at Kahn's hands, clandestinely working with the Great Kung Lao to prevent the Emperor from conquering realms while at the same time feigning her allegiance to him. Her outfit and weapon are similar to these she has in the films, but she uses her native fighting style called the Special Edenian Arts, which she had mastered already before Shao Kahn's invasion and which was suplemented with various moves that she learnt from prisoners of her stepfather. The Konquest version of Mileena is neither her clone nor a sister, and Rain appears as her former best friend.^[1] In the series' abrupt finale (due to the show's cancellation, as it was supposed to continue further for a next season after a cliffhanger ending), Kitana appears to die, after she was reluctantly ordered by Shao Kahn to be killled for her plots of treason against him. She is attacked by three Shadow Priests, and after a struggle, one manages to strangle her, lifts her of the ground, passes her to the other two Shadow Priests who keep strangling her. The first Shadow Priest then uses Kitana's own fan against her.

Kitana appears in the 2011 prequel live-action webisode series Mortal Kombat: Legacy,^[38] played in her first acting role by a 20-year-old martial artist and stuntwoman Samantha Jo (credited as Sam Tjhia),^[39][40] a self-professed Kitana fan who said she did research "to get on the same page" with other fans to see how they perceive the character while preparing for the role.^[41] Kitana's origin story is told in part-live and part-animated episode "Kitana & Mileena", which is a fable-like, altered adaptation of their backstory from the original game series' canon (one big difference is that her mother, Sindel, used a ritual so her soul fused with Kitana's in hopes to avoid Shao Khan's corruption before committing suicide). In it, Kitana appears both masked (only in the animated scenes) and unmasked, and bests Mileena in a fierce sparring match. When the young sisters are sent by Shao Kahn to assassinate the man who is really King Jerrod, Kitana's biological father who is then killed by Mileena, Kitana eventually learns the truth after her past and decided to turn against Shao Kahn in the upcoming Mortal Kombat tournament.

Promotion and merchandise [link]

In April 2011, Rachelle Glover,^[42] cosplaying as Kitana, along with those dressed as Sonya and Mileena, was featured in her a live-action trailer "Kitana Kasting"^[43] and an official photo session;^[44] all three of them later also attended The Gadget Show: World Tour for a MK game tournament.^[45] That same month, UFC's Octagon Girl^[46] Brittney Palmer dressed up in a blue costume and played Kitana in the game in a promotional video on the Playboy vlog of Jo Garcia.^[47][48] One year later, Glover also portrayed Kitana in "Play Anywhere", a live-action trailer for the PlayStation Vita version of Mortal Kombat, released in two versions, first alone and then with Mileena.^[49][50]

A figurine of Kitana came in the MKII set with the Argentinian magazine Top Kids in 1995.^[51] In 1996, an action figure of Kitana was released in the UK by Toy Island as part of their Mortal Kombat Trilogy Twelve Inch Series 2.^[52] An action figure based on her MKII design (and the earlier Mileena model) was presented by Infinite Concepts in a prototype form at the American International Toy Fair 2000^[53] but was never actually released. A 1/6 scale limited-edition statue of Kitana was released by Syco Collectibles in the Enchanted Warriors series in 2012.^[54]

Cultural impact [link]

In the humor magazine Cracked, Kitana was parodied in the comic shorts "Lifestyles of the Rich and Violent" (in 1994) and "Moron Kombat" (1995), in the latter of which she was renamed as Princess Kittykat.^[55] Kitana was also mentioned in the novel This Is How It Starts by Grant Ginder.^[56] A self-proclaimed "geek" Tanya 'MsTooney' Jordan won the Ms Fitness Southern California competition with her pole dance while dressed as the UMK3 version of Kitana in 2010,^[57] while the FHM Premiere Vixen champion Karen Bordador made a photo session while dressed as the same version of Kitana in 2011.^[58] In the Halloween 2011 special edition of Monday Night Raw, professional wrestler AJ Lee dressed as Kitana for the Divas Battle Royal contest and jokingly attempted to perform a "Fan Lift" on her rival.^[59] Commenting on the 2012 live-action trailer, Computer and Video Games wrote they are "hoping this trailer will encourage more hot females to turn up to cosplay parties wearing skimpy Kitana outfits."^[60]

Kitana has quickly become one of the very sex symbols of the Mortal Kombat series, in a display of what one author described as manifestation of "pseudo-Japanese Orientalist fetishes."^[61] One of the many urban legend-style rumors surrounding MKII in the early 1990s concerned the supposed "Nudality" finishing move (also known under other names, such as "Sexuality") that would be performed by Kitana stripping naked.^[62] The nickname of an American adult model Cherie Roberts is "Kitana Jade" since 1999 (Jade being the name of another female ninja character in the series), while Kitana Baker is an adopted name of an American model born as Christi Josenhans. During the development of the Mortal Kombat reboot game, the God of War series' director David Jaffe explicitly wrote how the GoW character Kratos would have "a ****ALITY" with "Sonya AND Katana [sic]" if he would join the series.^{[63][note 6]} Following Internet backlash, Jaffe explained he does not advocate rape and this comment was just an "intentionally juvenile" joke to suggest that "as a reward, Kratos gets a threesome with two of the hottest chix [sic] in gaming."^[64]

The made-up word "kitana" also became a misspelling for the word "katana", such in one 2004 AP piece where they talked about "the kitana-blade wielding Mileena" (in addition confusing the katana with the sai).^[65]

Reception [link]

Critical reception of Kitana was mostly very positive, often with emphasis placed on her good looks and sometimes also on her complicated character, and is commonly regarded to be one of the most recognizable characters of Mortal Kombat. According to Amiga Format in 1994, while it might be "incredibly sad for adult males to fancy in game female characters", one should be "prepared to fall in love" with Kitana.^[66] In 2005, Game Revolution ranked her as fourth on the list of top ten "old school" Mortal Kombat characters, adding "you’ve got to be a pretty tough chick to hang with the other kombatants, but what was really deadly about Kitana was her beauty."^[2] In 2008, GameDaily ranked her as the 28th top "hottest game babe", noting her to be "the most worthy of the Mortal Kombat II babes."^[67] In 2012, Techi.com called her "arguably the most popular character in the series."^[68]

In 2004, a Vibe's contributor admitted he had once a crush on Kitana, describing her as "sexy as hell."^[69] In 2007, Tom's Games listed her among the 50 greatest female characters in video game history, calling her "arguably the best known and most popular woman" in the series and "a powerful princess that's lived more than 10,000 years and still hasn't lost her hotness."^[70] In 2008, GamesRadar featured her on the list of top 20 "overlooked game babes".^[71] In 2009, Kitana was included on the list of 21 "sexy ladies of computer games" by Polish tabloid Fakt,^[72] while GameDaily also included Kitana in the gallery "Babe of the Week: Brunettes"^[73] and Unreality listed her among ten "most badass video game women of all time."^[74] In 2010, Videogamer.com included Princess Kitana on the list of top ten "video game crushes" as rivaling Princess Peach for number one video game monarch, commenting "Peach may own Kitana in the cuteness stakes, but Kitana wins out in sheer sex appeal", and adding that she "may be 10,000 years old, but just think of the things she could teach you,"^[75] while GamePlayBook ranked Kitana as the best female character in the series and the fifth best Mortal Kombat character overall.^[76] In 2011, Kitana was listed as one of the nine "sexiest babes of action games" by The Times of India,^[77] Bright Hub called "the gorgeous Kitana" to be the sexiest Mortal Kombat character,^[78] while GameFront ranked her breasts in MK2011 as the 30th finest in gaming history.^[79]

In 2006, the relationship between the "smoking hot" Kitana and Liu Kang was ranked fourth in IGN's list of best video game couples.^[80] UGO ranked her as the 28th top "videogame hottie", stating "Kitana has her curves in all the right places, and her signature fans will keep you cool when things start to heat up."^[81] Her famous "Kiss of Death" finishing move was also ranked as the eight best of all Mortal Kombat Fatalities by both UGO in 2007 and IGN in 2010.^[82][83] In 2011, UGO listed her among the 25 "hottest (and deadliest) ninja assassin chicks" in all media ("we can't talk Mortal Kombat and forget Kitana").^[84] UGO also placed her at ninth place on their 2012 lists of top Mortal Kombat characters, stating that Kitana and her mother Sindel should be on every "hot females in videogames" list,^[85] and chose her as the 38th "hottest fictional woman of 2012", commenting that the series "has always boasted some hotties, but the new game brought back Kitana in a big way."^[86] Complex featured her as one of top ten "hottest video game girls" ever in 2009,^[87] and in 2011 ranked the animated series version of Kitana as 18th on the list of "hottest cartoon women of all time",^[88] while her portrayal by Talisa Soto in the live-action film was ranked fourth on the list of "hottest women in video game movies" with likeness factor of 70%.^[89] In 2012, FHM included Kitana among the nine "sexiest ninja babes in games" and compared her to Eula Valdez.^[90]

Kitana also shared some of media spotlight with her clone. At the time of the release of MKII, The Miami Herald called Kitana and Mileena ("leggy ladies who wear masks") to be "an interesting step toward political correctness" as "a far cry from Little Miss Muffet",^[91] while Austin American-Statesman described them as "far nastier than that martial-artless aerobics instructor from the first game."^[92] In the book Interacting With Video, the "two Asian twin sisters, Kitana and Mileena" exemplified "highly eroticized dragon lady" stereotype in video games.^[93] The book Making Sense of Video Games judged their portrayal as "formiddable female opponents" to be potentially progressive, yet arguably made just to increase "the sexist potential of the individual fights", and described Kitana's Fatality of decapitation with a "deceptively feminine razor-sharp fan" to be castration-like.^[94] In 2009, GamePro ranked them as the 11th best pair of palette-swapped video game characters, adding that "both prefer wearing clothing that shows off their inflated mammary glands, and both have used the usually endearing gesture of kissing as a fatality."^[95] The two were also featured in GamesRadar's 2006 list of top seven "girls kissing girls"^[96] and shared the eight place with Sonya in the 2010 list of the "hottest women in video games" by Complex.^[97] GameFront called Kitana, Mileena and Jade to be "basically the same character."^[98] Featuring Kitana in the 2009 list of top 25 "hottest" female video game protagonists, the staff of Manolith stated their preference of her over "the rather butch" Sonya, adding that she "may have been cloned and copied in the game, but none of her doppelgangers held the same sway."^[99]

There has been also some mixed or negative critical reception (some of it being written in obviously tongue-in-cheek style). In 2008, Mania.com listed her as one of ten "psychotic video game chicks with too much baggage,"^[100] while GameDaily featured her among the ten "babes who shouldn't meet your mom".^[101] In 2010, GamesRadar featured her on the list of "gaming's most twisted royalty", for having "a thing for bloody decapitations via razor fan and for boys 9,000 years her junior",^[102] and GamePro's AJ Glasser called her his favorite female Mortal Kombat character but criticized her weak repertoire of special moves.^[103] In 2011, Game Rant included Kitana on their list of ten "most awesome" Mortal Kombat characters in the "honorable mentions" section, yet added that "apart from possessing one of the cooler weapons" she "lacks the entertaining/alluring oddity" of Mileena,^[104] also ranking her death kiss as the eighth worst Fatality in the series for repeating in various games with very little changes made to it over the years^[105] (her "Splitting Headache" from MK2011, however, was ranked as the eighth best Fatality from that game^[106]). That same year, GameFront alternatively ranked Kitana's "Kiss of Death" from MKII as the second best Fatality in the entire series, yet called her to be "not be a very compelling character" otherwise.^[107] Kotaku's Mike Fahey wrote that "the whole alien ninja woman thing ... isn't quite my cup of tea."^[108]

Notes [link]

1.^note 1 In Kitana's ladder mode uncanonical ending of the 2011 reboot game, however, she takes pity on Mileena, sparing and accepting her "royal blood" after Shao Kahn is defeated, and the two sisters (and Jade) team-up to fight against the forces of evil. This stood out as an abrupt departure from their usual relations so far in the original timeline, in which Shao Kahn gives Mileena the task of suspecting Kitana's motives (which soon caused Kitana to "murder" Mileena), but also Kitana flatly refused to accept Mileena's demand to co-rule during their shared ending of Mortal Kombat Gold (resulting in Mileena's imprisonment in Kitana's canonical version of this confrontation).

2.^note 2 Jade, when introduced as secret boss character in MKII, was just a faster, recolor of Kitana with green attire and darker skin, using her weapons and attacks. Jade was given her own weapon and distinct special moves in the later games, and made to be Kitana's friend when she given a personality. Interestingly, their relationship was completely ignored in MK:SM (based on MKII).

3.^note 3 Kitana has been actually included in the early development versions of MK4, before her character model (shown only in Liu Kang's ending; she also only appears in his ending in the original MK3) became basis for creating Tanya, and she is even actually accessible to play in the Nintendo 64 version of the game with the use of GameShark cheat cartridge device.^[109] In Deception, Kitana only appears in the endings for Sindel and Ermac, resembling an unmasked and blue-clad Mileena (it was also the first time ever when Kitana has appeared with a ponytail). This is explained by the two early design concepts^[110] for Mileena's design in Deception, created by Steve Beran and included as unlockable pictures in the game's bonus gallery called "The Krypt". According to the picture's gallery caption text, the first costume shown there was actually originally supposed to be Kitana's, but was later developed into Mileena's primary. (This attire appears to be already belonging to Mileena in the picture, as indictated by its colors that are associated with her, and has evolved further before its final version.)

4.^note 4 The MKII-style (albeit modified and noticably different for all of them) costumes for Kitana, Mileena and Jade have been actually considered to return already in Shaolin Monks, as seen in an early concept art^[111] for this game, but got rejected in favour of more fresh designs (in Kitana's case, it meant a cross between the her costumes from UMK3 and Deadly Alliance).

5.^note 5 During the early production runs of Mortal Kombat II, Kitana became notorious as an unbeatable kombatant, as her "Fan Lift" special attack could be done in such a way as to completely immobilize the opponent in the corner of the screen, allowing the player to defeat their opponent with a series of uncontested punches. Changes were made in later version to eliminate this, as it tended to unbalance the game, yet still Ed Boon said that it was amazing seeing people doing combos with her that even he had not thought of.^{[citation needed]}

6.^note 6 "Katana" is a fairly-common^[35] misspelling of Kitana's name and Kratos was indeed soon added to the Mortal Kombat games' character roster in MK2011.

References [link]

External links [link]

• Kitana – The Mortal Kombat Wiki
• Kitana at IGN
• Princess Kitana at the Internet Movie Database