#other than Kronika she was my biggest problem

[mouseoleum]

wake up. immediately start thinking about Mortal Kombat.

[bluehairedspidey]

For character ask: Mileena and Reptile

finally finished this let's goooooooo

Mileena

General opinion/How much I care about them: Not one of the characters I spend the Most time thinking about but i love her!! <333 A ship I love: Mileena/Tanya is top tier of course, but I'm also really interested in the potential of Mileena/Frost! Particularly because of some of the intro dialogues in MK11:

Kotal Kahn: I despise you as I did Mileena. Frost: You have problems with strong women? Kotal Kahn: Those who seek stations above their faculty.

Frost: I've never killed a clone. Mileena: Nor have I a construct. Frost: May the best woman win.

Mileena: Kronika has offered me a body like yours. Frost: Don't be a fool. Take it. Mileena: Show me its worth.

Mileena: We're the same, Frost. Frost: Both written off and underestimated. Mileena: Together, we'll surprise them all.

A non-romantic relationship that I love: It may not be the most in character but I love Shao Kahn actually caring about Mileena as a daughter! She didn't ask to be made the way she was, and it seems like really all she wants is love and acceptance. Its no wonder she wants so badly to live up to Shao's expectations of her and follow in his footsteps when he was the first person who didn't immediately reject her as a monster. I also love the idea of Shang Tsung caring about her at least a little in his own way as she's one of his creations, and I'm super interested in the potential of her relationship with Baraka because I love hearing people talk to Mileena (and Baraka for that matter) as an equal, like in these lines:

Baraka: Join us against the Emperor. Mileena: And forever curtsy to my sister? Baraka: Better Kitana's partner than Shao Kahn's slave.

Baraka: You belong with the tribe. Mileena: I belong with my father, Baraka. Baraka: Your blood is ours, not his.

The NOTP: Hmm idk if I have any specific ships that I super hate, I guess I'm not particularly into any ships of her with men, im not a fan of her and baraka as anything but platonic My biggest headcanon about them: I've talked about it already but I really do think she just wants love and acceptance. idk if getting it from the right person/people would be able to turn her "good" at this point, but if anything could it would be that An idea for a fanfiction I would like to write/read about them: Since I mentioned Baraka earlier, I'd LOVE to see a fanfic where (perhaps after Shao Kahn's death) Mileena decides to accept Baraka's invitation to join the Tarkata tribe and when she does she's finally able to find a place where she fits in with people who love and accept her <;3 Something that makes me think of them: I mean she is very Jennifer's Body lol

Reptile

General opinion/How much I care about them: Similar to Mileena, don't think about him the most but I do love him! His less human/more lizard-like forms are my favorite, like in Deadly Alliance and his reptile form in MK1 (I'm not really a fan of his human form in MK1 ^^; ) A ship I love: Reptile/Kotal Kahn babey he can be his little creepy crawly <;3 A non-romantic relationship that I love: I ship Reptile/Kotal/Jade/Kitana/Liu Kang, so I'm interested in Reptile's platonic relationships with all the other members of the polycule that he's not involved with :) (EDIT: I FORGOT erron and reptile friendship as well :) The NOTP: None in particular (except perhaps, again, any straight ships) My biggest headcanon about them: This isn't even a headcanon it's just from the MKX intros but I love Kotal calling Reptile "Little Lizard" and Reptile calling Liu Kang "Little Dragon" <3 I do also headcanon that Kotal might call Reptile "Topitzin" ("little lizard" in Nahuatl) An idea for a fanfiction I would like to write/read about them: Currently have a WIP that's just Johnny, Liu Kang, Kitana, Jade, Kotal, and Reptile having an orgy Something that makes me think of them: Would it be cheating to say lizards lmao

[sasorikigai]

@paindealt asked.... (aka the MK Kommunity Rambler)

Honestly YESSSS. That's what I love about Sub-Zero and Scorpion, and just Mortal Kombat characters. Is that they're IRONIC, and they have things about them that intentionally contradicts what character they're supposed to be. And that? Makes them feel more realistic imo. With a lot of characters in medias, they tend to fit one role/mold (like the stoic one, or the angry one, the funny one etc etc) which makes them feel one dimensional. But not the MK kast. Not only what we just talked about. 

Raiden is another fine example. Like, he's this wise mentor character -- yet he FUCKS UP so badly. In fact, lots of people blame Raiden for the key problems in the series. Like Earthrealm's defender, yet he led characters' to their deaths, technically tried to sell their souls, became a "bad" (or "dark") for a little bit. Like Raiden is that wise old guy, but he's far from perfect, and even his wisdom is of no help. And I just find that very interesting about the kast & why I love them so. 

The Mortal Kombat characters just SURPRISE you. And not in an ooc/bad writing sort of way. They're like REAL PEOPLE, and not only do they have a lot of history -- but you find out things about them you wouldn't expect. And it's why the MK games are my FAVORITE fighting series, just because the series really aced their characters and they're so good.

Like Kuai for example... when we see him older, it feels like he's actually aged. His younger self seemed more emotional, more liable to do something impulsive without thinking. (Example; going to straight on kill Scorpion for his brother without considering the circumstances). And then we see older Kuai and how much he's matured, how much wiser he became, and overall a man of peace. Yet... he STILL feels like the Kuai Liang we know. They did an amazing job with realistically aging Kuai up. 

Same with Johnny and his younger self. And I know I'm rambling now. But MK just does an AMAZING job with its characters and I am impressed by it. Yes, there are still some ooc stuff, or they didn't do a character justice... (such as the death of Hanzo). But for the most part, they're good at writing realistic & interesting characters and except for a select few (mostly from the ps2/3d games era) I honestly adore all the characters. 

I love that they’re both ICONIC and IRONIC, and despite their supernatural abilities and exceedingly and excruciatingly tragic lives, I believe they are two of the most relatable and characters who one can sympathize with the most. I called it their duality, but also, it’s their complexity and humanness that initially intrigued me to nab Hanzo Hasashi/Scorpion and Kuai Liang/Sub-Zero as my dual-muses (obviously)!

To begin, the premise of my blog’s creation (based on the word cathexis, which means THE CONCENTRATION OF MENTAL ENERGY ON one particular person, idea, or object (ESPECIALLY TO AN UNHEALTHY DEGREE - which I headcanoned here). Basically, it has to do with Hanzo’s most woeful tragedy that only has brought him a vicissitude od descension; with the loss of his life, his family and his clan, he has lost self-control, governance, freedom and humanity. By accepting the hubbed hell and excruciating suffering by letting himself be forged in hellfire, Scorpion not only lengthened his life (if he were to simply accept his fate without vengeance, then Hanzo Hasashi obviously would have not existed ever), he found the sole, one-track mind to seek out the one who annihilated his life to charcoal dust and exact revenge, to cause equally excruciating suffering against anyone who had been complicit in his clan’s demise (most notably Bi-Han, Quan Chi, Shinnok and Sektor, amongst the others who are subordinates under them). 

Despite Scorpion’s motive being immoral and wrong, I cannot help but to let it justified, because he too, is inwardly and outwardly suffering through his own hubbed hell and chaos and insanity. Through anger, there’s an associated sorrow and suffering and through vengeance, there’s self-destruction and emptiness that’s so humanly relatable and connect to. It’s also the universal idea that the concept of self-sustenance and familial love is what serves as the foundation of anyone’s fueled desire, responsibilities and duties. 

Through his suffering, depression and PTSD that continue to haunt him, despite taking more than two decades to free himself from the shackle of the past and let Harumi and Satoshi’s death become the fuel for his fiery passion to protect the Earthrealm at all the cost and regain his humanity and redeem himself, Hanzo’s redemption arc is essentially what drove me towards Mortal Kombat and especially MK11. It is a poignant, emotionally-changing makeover of an individual who literally has gone through hell and back, to be killed multiple times only to be resurrected and come back even more stronger, and gradually purified towards the good side with his solemn vow becoming evermore stronger. I especially like the fact that the franchise’s quintessential antihero got a huge transformation, to serve the side of good for seemingly the first time, without wrath and revenge, only to meet the most noblest death one can suffer through the all (through the allegory of retelling of The Scorpion and The Frog). 

Kuai Liang is one of those people who you immediately feel sympathetic for; he’s your quintessential good guy who has also suffered so many hardships, yet the stacked experiences of the past has only made him kinder and wiser; he IS perhaps the most miserable character (next to Hanzo) in my opinion. 

His clan (or most of it anyway) gets forcefully converted under Cyber Initiative. And that's after Kuai Liang rebuild it piece by piece, to add insult to injury.

His protégé Frost absolutely hates his guts, betrays him, cyberizes herself and even leads the new Cyber Initiative that perverts everything his Lin Kuei vision stands for. He's obviously hurt by it too, as seen in one of his intros ("Was I such a bad mentor?").

His friend Cyrax has to be put down literally right after he's freed from the cyber mainframe.

His other friend Smoke is trapped in Netherrealm according to Noob Saibot (Bi-Han) who taunts him with his.

According to his Story Ending, his biggest wish is to redeem his brother which is quite obviously not happening anytime soon without the Hourglass and in the main story line.

From many of his intros it seems that as a Grandmaster, he lives a lonely life. He straight up tells Cetrion that "love gets in the way" and both Jax and Johnny note that he doesn't socialize much outside of his Lin Kuei duties.

He makes peace with Hanzo and both become respected equals and brothers in arms. Hanzo then gets promptly killed by D'Vorah and Kuai Liang is understandably upset about it ("This is for Hanzo" intro with D'vorah).

In a lot of his intros with Jade, he constantly badgers her to join the Lin Kuei and she always refuses (funnily enough, in her intro with Scorpion she's more than eager to prove she can join the Shirai Ryu, despite not being from Earthrealm).

He keeps getting his ass whooped in almost all trailers or promotional videos.

Add on top all he had to endure throughout MK9 and the MKX comics (forcefully cyberized, killed by Sindel, then painfully "remade" again into a Revenant, gets tainted by the Kamidogu dagger, Scorpion almost kills him etc.).

Sub-Zero deserves major respect. He’s been through all this, and wasn’t seduced by Kronika’s promise of a new era and still remains resilient and headstrong and a beacon of hope in Raiden’s army against the Keeper of time. 

I obviously concentrated on Hanzo and Kuai, because I love them much more than the other MK rosters (obviously), but I definitely agree that Netherrealm Studios has done such an amazing job not only fleshing out their characters and giving them relatable growth and development, but different facets of their characters that become so intriguing and contradicting in a sense. Hanzo could be stern, hot-headed and intimidating outward, yet he’s perceptive, astute and compassionate to those who deserve his trust, loyalty and love. Kuai is your ever-stoic, phlegmatic individual who hides all of his pain and suffering inward, yet he’s so open about his philosophies and is able to crack ice puns or partaking in pranks, etc. They’re so multifaceted and the possibilities are endless, which makes them two of the most amazing characters.

 TL:DR; I FUCKING LOVE THEM SM.