poll: most improved personality

[Barrogh]

I loved it, personally, as I described above.

I also got to thinking a good bit about Mileena and Kotal last night, and how much of a poorer ruler I feel Kotal is.

I haven't seen comics past shokan uprising chapter (whatever it was), so I don't know much about it, but from the game itself we only knew like a single thing that characterizes her as a ruler, which is her decision not to parley with Earthrealm for sentimental reasons, although that one was arguable less straight up bad than Kotal suggests - she may forfeited basis to call for Earthrealm's aid (which they could or could not provide actually), but saved some resources in the process as well. Although we could still expand on that and say that sending some tarkatans to help Earthrealm in Netherrealm war could both give her some credit with ER and ease pressure on Outworld troubled supplies. Speaking about "practical solutions", although this idea of mine may just as well be idiotic as I don't know how that would even work as we don't know much about their current role in OW economy and then there's understandable unwillingness of her to waste her only subjects who are guaranteed to be loyal. Bottom line though is that this descision is hardly cut-and-dry even though it was made for wrong reasons.

The rest, well, we can only assume. She managed to last many years being a PITA for Kotal, so she had enough followers to be a huge nuisance, but whether it was legit support or just Mileena using almost programmed loyalty of tarkatans to whack some territories into submission is unclear. That said, even so, such thing may just be par the course in OW and considered legit support as long as she followed a kode of honourable Kombat

 

[Pterodactyl]

I think Mileena had to have had more than just the support of Tarkatans and the established(Goro, Rain, Baraka, Ermac for a long while, Tanya, Reiko, and whoever else) to last over a decade and also fuck Kotal's shit up. She'd of had to of had some level of citizen support.

I also wouldn't really knock her for not wanting Earthrealm's help, I honestly don't think they would have given it to her given their history. Besides, there are other realms that could have provided help.


When you think of Kotal's line up none of them were really against her policies besides Kotal himself. Reptile just straight up disliked her and didn't see her as an heir because he knew her history, Ermac just felt like it, D'Vorah had ulterior motives, Ferra/Torr were just there, and Erron was paid off.

In the comics we see that he didn't even solve Outworld's problems, as he mentions to his father that his talking skills won't matter once people start to starve.

While MKX's story had a lot of holes, I do like that they're are structured in a way in which we can fill them in ourselves.

 

[Sharpedo Ted]

In the comics we see that he didn't even solve Outworld's problems, as he mentions to his father that his talking skills won't matter once people start to starve.

Actually, he said that because Mileena's squad was screwing with Outworld trade routes to keep crops from coming in.

 

[Barrogh]

Actually, he said that because Mileena's squad was screwing with Outworld trade routes.

Arguably, that meant supplies were going somewhere else at first, meaning that goods were re-distributed but there weren't enough of them. That is, before closing routes started to inflict lasting damage on the economy when sowing didn't happen in due time etc. due to renegades' banditry.

Then again, this only started to happen in part because of civil war caused by the coup in the first place...

 

[Pterodactyl]

I actually really want some insight into this entire arch, if only a short book from the writers.

I know most people want to see the off-screen action like Sub vs Sektor or the rest of the Netherrealm war, but Mileena and Kotal's rule and fight for power is much more compelling to me.

The little bit we got from the comic isn't enough.

 

[Juxtapose]

You should elaborate, sounds interesting. @Pterodactyl pointed out earlier in the thread that we don't know 100% that Mileena was a poor ruler, since we don't know what the people thought of her.

Happy to. You guys started covering some of it. So for me, I've played through the game of course, and read Mortal Kombat X Volume 1 (Issues 1 to 4) of the comics.

My thinking last night, which of course is not definitive, is that Mileena was a better ruler than Kotal Khan. Here's why:

We don't know a huge lot about Mileena's rule during its hey-day, but we do know she opposed an alliance with Earthrealm over the NetherRealm crisis. As far as I know, nothing else was given as her being a mad or bad Empress or anything, and this was Kotal's primary reason to dethrone her.

But let's look at this: At the time, EarthRealm was being invaded (or had already been invaded) by NetherRealm. Outworld had not. Shinnok would have targeted Outworld and all realms, but Outworld was not in immediate danger. Outworld and EarthRealm don't play nice together. They don't. Years later when Kotal came to EarthRealm asking for assistance in putting Mileena down, Sonya had him, D'Vorah, and Erron Black in chains. Clearly, an alliance with Earth Realm wasn't practical, and Mileena knew this.

Had Mileena sent Tarkatans to Earthrealm's aid unannounced, that would have been seen as an act of aggression and problems would ensue. Instead, we see she had the loyalty of the Tarkatan's, but it also turned out Edenians. At least Tanya, and Rain was feigning loyalty but he was helping for, what, over a decade? While we don't know if the Edenian aid was there during her rule, the ground work was obviously there since they sided with her and the Tarkatans, the race that helped conquer their realm, in the rebellion.

Mileena also kept most of her councilors at a distance. This seems to have been Kotal, Reptile, and D'Vorah. Yet she kept Baraka and Ermac close, as they were loyal, and this made sense. Kotal obviously betrayed her, Reptile betrayed her, and D'Vorah was an agent for Shinnok. She didn't know that part, but she obviously didn't trust her. Baraka was truly loyal, and Ermac was her father's creation and was loyal up to that point.

Kotal Khan trusted and was long-term duped by D'Vorah, and he also faulted Mileena for being a creation, yet happily accepts Ermac, who is also a creation.

Of course we know Mileena was duped by Reiko, and being duped by Rain, but her progress still seemed more sound.

So basically, as Emperor, Kotal Khan couldn't contain the one he dethroned for over a decade, was duped by a close ally who was in league with one of the greatest threats to the Realms, tried to make alliances that were doomed from the start, let a group of Special Forces kids mess up a bit of order in Outworld, accused EarthRealm of doing a scrub job of guarding the amulet, then lost it himself in a fraction of the time, and then hostilely invaded another Realm and was implied defeated and sent back to Outworld.

Mileena, as Empress and then a rebel, generally made progress with allies who were loyal to her (Tarkatens), forged alliances with those who you'd think would oppose her (Edenia), mistrusted many who proved distrustful to Outworld, (D'Vorah, EarthRealm), and executed a very successful gorilla campaign against a usurper. She also had the Red Dragon working with her for a time, and clearly Goro and the Shokan liked and respected her more than Kotal Khan.

Mileena was younger, of course, and we do see her make youthful mistakes (too much trust in Reiko for love, etc.), mistakes that cost her, but she was clearly learning and maturing. Kotal Khan is far older, and while I don't consider him a bad guy and I truly do believe he cares and wants to do what's best for his people, he's just never been good at it.

He caused the death of all the Myens on Earth by being blindly arrogant, and now as the Emperor of Outworld, he's made so many mistakes based on honour and a set of ideals that severally cost him and caused so many issues for both Outworld and elsewhere. He's the most mortal and fallible ruler Outworld has had yet.

So basically, while both have flaws, Mileena's natural mistrust and viciousness aided her better in what is a harsher Realm by default. I think she was actually the better ruler, and is also the legitimate air since Shao Khan did acknowledge her. She was no Shao Khan, but then no one ever was. Which is why Shao was the true Emperor of Outworld for over a thousand years and was able to usurp the Dragon King.

Sorry for any spelling mistakes or if anything is disjointed. I'm at work and wrote this in pieces over the last hour, being interrupted several times.