Questions about Mortal Kombat lore.

[Krankk]

Hello everyone.

I'm new here and this is my first thread. I'm not quite sure, if I'm posting this in the right section, since I couldn't find something more fitting, so I went with the most recent Mortal Kombat forums. I hope a mod can move it to the right section, if this doesn't fit here.

I always liked Mortal Kombat, but wasn't invested as much in the overall lore. My knowledge comes from the MK9 story. I have yet to buy MKX, which I'll do early next year in order to get my body ready for MK11, which I intend to play quite a bit. So far I've mostly played Injustice 1 and Injustice 2.

I'm reading more and more about the Mortal Kombat lore and I have one question regarding it, which opens up another question. Maybe someone well versed with the MK lore can help me out:

Is Mileena a cannibal?

In MKX Mileena eats her opponents during her fatalities, but I personally don't consider anything we see in fatalities as canon. Otherwise Johnny Cage would kill Sonya and Cassie.
So my question is if Mileena ever ate people in older MK games outside her fatalities, which would make her a canon cannibal.

The typical answer I read on that topic is, that Mileena is not human, so therefore she can't be a cannibal. But that is not something I personally completely agree with, which leads me to the other question:

Can Liu Kang and Kitana have children?

By definition cannibalism means, that you eat members of your own species. So a white person eating a black person would be considered cannibalism, since both belong to the same species, even though they have different races. Dogs for example can look insanely different depending on their breed, but they still belong to the same species. So them eating each other would still be considered cannibalism.

So if you don't consider Mileena a human, at the same time you would have to say that Kitana eating Liu Kang wouldn't be cannibalism, since then Edenians wouldn't be the same species as Humans. Even though they look and behave the same. Sure, Edenians live longer, but you get my point. And if they were not the same species, they could not have children.
But at the same time we have Argus, a god, having children with Delia, an Edenian. Which tells me that the majority of races in the Mortal Kombat universe belong to the same species. And that, in my mind, would make Mileena a cannibal, if she ever ate people in canon.

Am I getting all of this right or am I way off?

Thanks for any input. Looking forward to talking to you all.

 

[HeavyNorse]

Is Mileena a cannibal?

Someone just posted this on the sub-reddit as well... was that you?
But no, I wouldn't call her a cannibal as such... she just seems to get excited during battle and ferociously tears people apart with her teeth and starts eating them. But I don't think she's one too cook up some liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti for dinner...

Can Liu Kang and Kitana have children?

I don't think the undead are capable of having children, but there's no actual official info on the matter. If they are revived into becoming mortals again, then I believe they could indeed have children together. The way I see it, to put it in Tolkien/Dungeons and Dragons fantasy terms, Edenians are like elves, so should a human and an Edenian get children together, they would be like half-elves.

Being human is the main term for those who live in Earthrealm, but Edenians (Kitana, Jade, Tanya, Sindel) and Outworlders (Li Mei, Bo'Rai Cho) are strictly speaking humans too, but with different origins. Edenians are descendants of the gods, hence their long life-span, and both Edenians and Outworlders can practise magic which I can imagine has also affected their evolution into what they are today.

This is just theory and speculation though, as it hasn't been officially addressed yet.

 

[Krankk]

Someone just posted this on the sub-reddit as well... was that you?But no, I wouldn't call her a cannibal as such... she just seems to get excited during battle and ferociously tears people apart with her teeth and starts eating them. But I don't think she's one too cook up some liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti for dinner...

Yaes. I saw your response too. Great response BTW! Can't go wrong with Hannibal Lecter references.
And yeah, that's how I view it as well. Mileena has sharp teeth and uses them as a weapon.

If they are revived into becoming mortals again, then I believe they could indeed have children together.

Do you know of any instances of crossbreeding in the Mortal Kombat universe? I named Argus (god) and Delia (Edenian) as an example, but maybe Argus being a god is what allows him to have children with another species. Like Hercules, whose father was Zeus and whose mother was human.

For example I don't see Liu Kang having a child with D'Vorah, who is a Kytinn. Even though D'Vorah has a humanoid body, there are still way too dramatic differences. But Liu Kang and Kitana - I really don't see why not, even though they should also be different species, strictly speaking.

And in case anyone is wondering why I'm being so specific about this: It's just to rule out the easier answer of Mileena not being human and therefore her not being a cannibal by default. I just don't think it's that simple.

 

[HeavyNorse]

Do you know of any instances of crossbreeding in the Mortal Kombat universe?

Other than Taven, Daegon and Rain being part God part Edenian, I don't think there are any half-beings in MK.

The Shokan as a whole are considered half-dragons, and the Tarkata are a created race which is a mix between Outworlders and Netherrealm demons (I think). And then there's Mileena who is a rather unique case.

 

[trufenix]

Can Liu Kang and Kitana have children?
This is just theory and speculation though, as it hasn't been officially addressed yet.

funny aside, we have yet to see any evidence that Edenians can have babies or how long they get pregnant. None of the Edenians in MK are less than a thousand years old! Maybe they can't. The humans, the zaterrans, the mutants, the shokan, and even the demons have all procreated since the story began. No new edenians.

 

[Jhonnykiller45]

Mileena the cannibal? I say yes. I wouldn't think anyone would care that much for the terminology though.
About Liu and Kitana, I'm sure they should be able to have children no problem. Maybe being extra fertile or being "compatible" with certain other species is a trait of the Edenians, but they just don't procriate very often due to their long lifespans. I imagine we'll find out about this perhaps in MK11 itself.

 

[HeavyNorse]

funny aside, we have yet to see any evidence that Edenians can have babies or how long they get pregnant. None of the Edenians in MK are less than a thousand years old! Maybe they can't. The humans, the zaterrans, the mutants, the shokan, and even the demons have all procreated since the story began. No new edenians.

I mean, Kitana is the daughter of Sindel and King Jerrod.

 

[xenogorgeous]

1- Mileena is cannibal, that's for sure ..... what makes her extra dangerous to anyone, rsrsrs .... I'm sure none human character inside MK lore could feel comfortable near her, knowing she could possible see them as the next snack to be eaten ...

2- Depends what NRS have in mind regarding canonic facts ..... Kitana being Edenian and Liu human, by logic , could make both being impossible to have children .... due for being from diferent species race, having diferent species genetic code, etc .... but , since in some rpgs, we have half-orcs, half-elves, etc , if NRS decides they both can have children, so, they don't need to waste time explaining why, just making possible inside MK universe

 

[HellblazerHawkman]

By definition, she's not a cannibal. In the same way I'm not a cannibal because I just ate some chicken. Unless she ate some fellow Tarkatans

 

[trufenix]

1) Mileena is an entirely artificial construct, she's no more human (or any other mk species) than the cyborgs are.

2) Mileena makes no distinction in who or what she eats, including lovers, creators, and allies. It's unlikely she sees anyone (or anything) as "the same species" as her.

3) Even if you bend the rules and make Mileena's species kin to something that already exists in MK, it'd be Edenian at best, since obviously she was majority modeled after them, ie: Kitana and not the Outworld nomads / mutants. In which case you could easily level any and all hostility toward the fact that literally they all hate her and vice versa.

 

[trufenix]

I mean, Kitana is the daughter of Sindel and King Jerrod.

True, but how? An egg? Pregnancy? Conversion from some other species? For all we know, 1000 years ago all the Edenians went sterile. Daegon and Taven wake up alone in caves watched by dragons, and arrangement specifically orchestrated by their father and they were both fully grown. We have zero details on any other (canon) edenian births.

Meanwhile, every other race (as of MKX at least) has had a birth or creation event at some point in the series canon. So again, there's no actual proof Edenians can (or ever did) have babies.

 

[HeavyNorse]

To be fair, we don't know how any of the races in MK make children. Not even the Earthrealm humans. We just assume they do it the way we real humans do, but we don't actually know. Cassie could just as well have been spawned from an egg.

Thing is though, it's not really important the how and what.

 

[MKF30]

For your first question, yes but she's also a twisted bitch. Mileena is an experimental hybrid due to Shang Tsung's sorcery and science kind of gone wrong as her dna is that of half Edenian(Kitana's) and half Tarkatan(Baraka's) mixed and you have Mileena. Cannibalism is when someone eats another person, since Mileena clearly has admitted and likes to eat people she is considered one. Technically, she's not a "human" but humanoid(as are all the MK characters outside of Earthrealm) Mileena's existence is due to Shao Kahn's orders to Shang Tsung to create "the perfect, loyal daughter" unlike Kitana. Mileena has also referenced Kitana as her "sister" and Shao Kahn as her "father"

I would say yes technically, however NOW I would not be so sure and would doubt it due to both being undead. Liu Kang is a human and Kitana, Edenian. Both humanoid but two entirely different species technically but I believe they could have children under normal circumstances a la(if Superman and Lois Lane could have a kid, I don't think it's that big of a stretch to have Liu Kang and Kitana having a kid) I would also recommend tweeting John Vogel as he's cool, and will talk to you once he has time. He's been the lead MK writer for MK since MK 1 through present, he's answered a few of my questions over time or given me better insight on some things.

 

[ImperatrixSindel]

While Mileena eats people in the context of the game for Fatalities, there's no suggestion she actually eats people as like, a regular thing. Since Fatalities aren't canon we have no idea if she's actually ever done it. I agree with you that there's no canon to suggest it.

(The question of whether she's a 'cannibal' isn't really relevant, because yes we can talk about humans being a different species from Edenians or Tarkatans but in reality the difference here is semantic -- they are all 'people', and we've never seen or heard about her eating people outside of gameplay.)

With regard to human/Edenian children, I tend to agree with @HeavyNorse that the Edenians are patterned sort of after Tolkien or D&D elves -- with Kitana's relationship to Liu Kang sort of paralleling the star-crossed Arwen and Aragorn thing where she's immortal and he isn't. In those fantasy novel type cases, the races absolutely can interbreed.

There's nothing really in canon, in fact, to suggest that Edenians or Outworlders (at least the 'human' ones like Shang Tsung, Bo' Rai Cho, or Li Mei) are biologically different from Earthrealm humans, except insofar as Edenians have divine heritage that dramatically extends their lifespans.

 

[HeavyNorse]

Shang Tsung

Just wanted to point out that Shang Tsung is from Earthrealm, not Outworld. ^^
But other than that, we seem to agree. ;P

 

[ImperatrixSindel]

Just wanted to point out that Shang Tsung is from Earthrealm, not Outworld. ^^
But other than that, we seem to agree. ;P

You're right, brain lapse on my part. I always forget that because it's a retcon.