I love when characters have that kind of depth of character. I usually sympathize with the bad guys, but knowing that Mileena really just wants to be accepted is just...beautiful.
I also like the idea that Mileena is portrayed as the villain, she just wants to be accepted by Kitana.
Kitana is the portrayed as the hero, but refuses to accept her sister.
It really blurs the lines between good and evil. Mileena does these evil things because of her sister's cruelty towards her. Despite Mileena being a product of Shang Tsung's evil. She's not inheritly evil herself. We know Tarkatan's aren't inheritly evil because Baraka's super fckn civilized in MK11's story. She's bad because she's not being accepted so she's lashing out.
That's another reason why I think the LGBT community gravitate towards her so much. Because even though these seeds were planted in MKX and the MKX comics, now it's really starting to bloom. Mileena, an outcast, wanting nothing more than to be accepted by her sister, her family, is shamed and attacked. So she fights back until she gets the happiness and acceptance she wants, from the people who care about her. Tanya and her daughter.
Fuck this character is so good. I'm gonna start wearing a shirt that says "Ask me about my Mileena agenda." because I could talk about this bitch for hours.
That's a cool analysis.
In the original timeline, there were points where Mileena seemed to just want to be accepted as well, which I always liked.
For Kitana, people oft seem to forget that she was Shao Kahn's prime assassin for almost ten thousand years. She's killed/executed a lot of people, and I'm sure many were innocent. That's what I liked about her
Mortal Kombat X portrayal so much: it show cased this darker side we don't see very often since she's typically portrayed in a better light.
I would classify Kitana as a "good guy" since finally rebelled against Shao Kahn and does seem to want to bring about more peace and justice than other rulers before her, but she's certainly not an angel.
For Mileena, another thing to think about is that she was created specifically to replace Kitana, that's her sole reason for being and all she's known. She's trying to live up to her "father's" expectations while also finding an identity of her own. Past Mileena, whom we seem to have in this game, is very immature and impulsive, but present Mileena, I think her imprisonment and rebellion really did help her grow up and mature more.
She is definitely more bloodthirsty than Kitana, especially younger, less disciplined her. She may not be evil along the lines of Shinnok and Shao, but I certainly wouldn't call her a good guy. I do think she would ultimately have made a better Kahn for Outworld over Kotal by far though.
Mileena can’t have nuthin nice