Old Mileena vs. New with History Behind the Warrior

[HeavyNorse]

lol or maybe he just never cared for relationships til now lol. Shao Kahn was a stud though, lol I still crack up at his winning outro in MK 9.

That slave-girl struggling to crawl over to his leg, then a sigh of relief when she's finally there. XD
It was so stupid.

 

[MKF30]

That slave-girl struggling to crawl over to his leg, then a sigh of relief when she's finally there. XD
It was so stupid.

I thought initially it was a different kind of sigh lol but I can see the relief too. First time my friends saw that they were like laughing and WTF at the same time. Like wow, what are they implying there? lol

 

[Juxtapose]

With regard to her being "the Mad Empress," it's possible that this could be a case of perception over reality, if NRS was aiming to go really deep with the plotine (which I hope, they were, because that would be excellent story telling).

The perception would be in many ways earned, because for one, she actually was batshit insane for most of her existence, and even as she has found more rational footing in reality, she still engages in many tics commonly associated with the mentally ill, and still has trouble controlling her emotionial outbursts. Additionally, she's a cloned hybrid of two different species, and not necessarily a natural-born heir, and as such would be subject to lots of skepticism in a heredity monarchy based on lines of succession. For Game of Thrones Fans, it would be as if Tyrion Lannister was up next in the line of succession, but he was also a bastard with the unfavorable reputation of of a Stannis or a Cercei. The kingdom is ultimately going to depose you some way, regardless of how well you actually rule.

Ultimately it's possible she actually ruled surprisingly well, but ultimately had to climb too many hurdles for her rule to ever be respected or permanent.

I've often wondered this as well, the perception angle. When she would have taken the throne, this would have been shortly after Mortal Kombat (2011) when she was still very young (and pretty crazy) and still new; all of Outworld would just have found out about her around this time. So she takes charge, the Tarkata support her, and imagine her talking and addressing people as she did in Mortal Kombat (2011); she'd seem pretty messed up even if she didn't do anything gratuitous or violent.

From the glimpses we saw in the comics during her rule, it looked like she was pretty arrogant during this time as well.

For any dispute on her claim to the throne, she was publicly stated by Shao Kahn himself as his heir, and her origins was a secret that few knew about (remember Reptile telling Koatal and D'Vorah about it in-game during D'Vorah's Chapter? That happened right before they rebelled and dethroned her).

My suspicion is she didn't rule poorly, but her arrogance and odd mannerisms cast her in a negative light. Didn't she rule for something like 15-ish years, give or take? During all that time, as far as we know, the Shokan didn't rebel, or any of the other Outworld races against her, and Kotal's motivation again was her unwillingness to make alliance with Earth-realm as he feared a Netherrealm invasion.