Understandable, I suppose.....but still profoundly lame and cliche.

I always saw Kitana as more like Elektra in her approach to her job.
While Elektra wears a similar leatard and has some sexuality to her character, when it came to fighting and killing, she never really did the "know what men desire and seduce them into letting their guard down" bullshit.

Oh well.
I guess Kitana was a seductress. Kung Lao was jealous. And Greedo shot first.




God, I hate reboots.

I didn't state that as fact, just hypothesis. The point I bring that up is because Kitana's betrayal of Kahn, and how it was discovered, has never properly been dissected by the MK team.

But I've seen depictions of strong women use their beauty and sexuality to their advantage plenty throughout various mediums. In my collector's edition of Street Fighter IV, the animated movie has Chun-Li and Sakura seducing the badguys to catch them off guard, only to pummel them later, and I easily view Chun-Li as one of the most conservative characters in all of video games.

I didn't know people could be so anal about minor facets of characterization

How could you not know?

The internet brings us all together so we can complain about anything and everything.

They are raging fans or simply just bored. They like to argue about these things, because they individually believe they are right and others wrong. They want people to understand that there is no shame in being more open about changes like these. They want to make clear that no matter how much people whine, there's nothing they can do about it. They want to whine, because there's not much else they can do.

Pick one. ;) There are many more explanations, these are but a few.

Spoiler much?

really? the dlc was weeks ago. Maybe if he said the collectors were making a hu-ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL

I think if you're going to accept the convention of two or three characters dressing alike, colour coded, as more than trope of out-dated technology, then that same logic should probably demand the costumes be respected too. With the exception of the MK3-era outfit, Kitana has never had a design that is particularly sexualized. It's not what I'd call the most practical attire for environments like Outworld's, but a solid one-piece obviously isn't nearly as absurd as the present example.

Liu Kang fought topless. Is "sexy" part of his appeal?

Personally, I am not satisfied by the restrictions that were imposed by the early generation of games, particularly when they have since been rendered redundant by the MKDA era of games. Which is both a reason to discard the past, and be cynical about the MK2011 present.

MKDA and it's sequels were the games that emphasised individuality in design and spirit, and that's where we unequivocally have the character of the "twin" fighters canonized. Mileena, quite obviously, shed clothing and played to an overtly sexual theme. That's the nature of her character as a responsive contrast to Kitana, who, for the most part, teetered between a disappointing reference to the past, and a basic one-piece design. A more respectable figure in stature and disposition, even if designs haven't quite caught up to that tone of character.

You'd have to be pretty conservative to honestly believe a kiss is an especially sexual gesture. Especially not when it's a playful in-game finisher, which was recycled no less. I don't think anyone would suggest the kiss of death made MK1 Sonya a sexual character without embarassing themselves.


You seem to have some very longform misconceptions about what's being said, and what's been established of characters and how that information sits. It sounds more like you're gleaning polar opposites to your own remarks, rather than digesting the actual discussion.

No, noone (as far as I've seen) has suggested Kitana is a dryed up old hag in a fullbody suit of chastity armor. For the greater good, I don't think anyone's even dared to drop a reference to the more humble movie version of the character! It certainly shouldn't need clarifying that there are romantic implications between Liu and Kitana, and that those same implications have always had a conventional fictional dignity to them.

I would suggest that Mileena and Kitana are two sides of the same coin, related, not quite polar opposites. Mileena is the overtly sexualized character -- this is now fact. That character is far better justified and more interesting, (as described above), as a reaction to the Kitana character.
There have been extensive discussions about hints toward even Shao Kahn gratifying Kitana with a greater degree of respect which is consistent through all available details and intepretations of her character. This provides the very conventional psychology for Mileena to act out against her more respected, more beautiful counterpart, who takes her beauty for granted, rather than weaponizing it.

I don't think Kitana has to be seen as a demure librarian figure, but you can glean a stature of respect and internal strength that isn't sexualized from her various conventional roles. We see her in positions of power that never require a use of sexuality. She brokers deals with men as powerful as the Shokan, she fights on the frontlines for an entire realm, she fights to overthrow evil dictators, in many respects she fulfills every expectation of a fictional fighting princess. She just happens to have been stuck with a less than impressive outfit, even in the best of times (MKDA). The information is there, without needing to invent new details.

I would also think, regardless of the character beneath it, this thing could easily be dismissed as a substandard "design." Mindless fawning isn't doing anyone any favours.


Granted, MK has never been held in particularly high esteem before this, and probably won't after, but I wouldn't think there's any shame in conventional measures of quality. It's disappointing if people are genuinely shocked by the possibility of consistency in characterization and a degree of thought in design that goes beyond slicing triangles of fabric out of a $20 leotard bought fifteen years ago.

It seems like MK, and it's fans, are dedicated to being the little train that can't, won't, and doesn't want to. Even though it got so very close not too long ago.

Where's the "inconsistency" though? Yeah, she's dressing a little skimpy, that doesn't mean she's suddenly a ho, or trying to throw men off guard. It doesn't even mean they're changing anything big about her character at all. It's just a token of fanservice for the fellas.

I don't even like Kitana but until we see where they go with this we can't say anything concrete at all.

And from what we DO know, she's still a mass murderer dressed in blue with steel fans and an overly proper manner of speaking (no wonder Mick likes her so much ). Where's the real deviation?

... Seriously?... The inconsistency should be self-evident.
By referring to it as a 'token of fan-service' with no consequential relation to the character, you're actually essentially acknowledging an understanding that it's an inconsistency!

I honestly wouldn't call myself a Kitana fan at all, but that's no reason to abandon conventional standards. I would maintain that regardless of the history of the character, this is a very substandard design.

Waiting to 'see where they go' is nigh irrelevant. Designs typically exist within an iconic microcosm, especially in this genre. Circumstances that might justify a rare occasion for Kitana to dress like this are unlikely to come, and a context that shouldn't matter in the broad terms.
Street Fighter IV did similar when they tried to justify their Chun-Li cocktail outfit with circumstantial context (in the accompanying anime), but they had the good sense to stick with a more relevant baseline, making it an (almost equally) uninspiring alternative look. I think most would agree the majority of those alternate outfits were pretty lackluster, but I digress...

Fan-wielding assassin in blue, she might be, but there's no correlation between that and this design. I would happily agree that the defunct days of the digitized era were similarly underwhelming in their representation of the practicalities of an assassin's attire! Heading toward twenty years of existence, MK should really have grown up by now. It shouldn't be going backward. As a do-over, this design literally takes something away from the character (cloth), and adds nothing. I would hope the character's past wouldn't need repeating, but it seems like every mini-conversation is a restart...

You still haven't shown me where any real, concrete deviation is.

From the builds we've seen she doesn't dance around like a slut, use double entendres or anything silly like that either. It's still the same pissed off killer chick in blue who carries steel fans around. Now she's just showing skin.

If that a "major inconsistency" I'd hate to see your opinions on Cyrax's design...

Ohhhh... Okay. You're just stirring. Har har. You got me!

No I prefer my debates shaken, not stirred.

Go ahead. Give into your anger. Strike my logic down with all of your hatred. Don't pussyfoot with sarcastic dismissals.

Show me where I'm wrong so I can become a better human being.

Exactly. There was never anything particularly breathtaking about the MKII swimsuit either. MK3 didn't do a whole lot to change it outside of the laced neckline.

Given the nature of the current game, they may have been able to get away with doing a complete throwback to one of those two costumes. But it's evident, and for good reason, that kind of consistency isn't worth pursuing. It might be a retelling of the first three games but nobody is complaining that Scorpion and Sub-Zero aren't palette swaps. The developers and fanbase alike seem equally happy to move past that.

They obviously want to move beyond those technological and budgetary limitations of the early 90s and create costumes that, while retaining the most iconic elements from the old days, are much more detailed and well developed, often incorporating details that mirror personality traits. Johnny Cage's tattoo, for example.

That being the case, Kitana's current costume fails on all fronts. While a complete throwback may have been acceptable, they obviously didn't do that. So since we can't value it based on posterity alone, what makes this costume special in and of itself? It doesn't reflect Kitana's personality. And, even if it did, it lacks creative inspiration. A little embroidery doesn't hide the fact that it's just a blue swimsuit. There's just less of it. A little embroidery was the most they could do given how little costume there is to work with.

That's really the great irony here. While it shares the design limitations of the classic costume that was restricted by technology and money, it still can't be appreciated on a nostalgia level because it isn't the classic costume. So it's like they opted to intentionally create a costume at least as plain as MKII/3 while simultaneously eliminating the nostalgia factor which was the one thing that could have possibly excused that.

Compared to today's standards, no the leotard isn't over sexualized. But if you look at other characters from the time MK2 was released (characters like Psylocke, Elektra, Starfire, "sexy" characters), fighting in a one piece leotard was considered sexualized. Her outfit didn't get more conservative until MKDA, when she has obviously matured a little more and probably has more say so of what she wears.



Actually, it was a little bit. All the topless fighters were at least a little sexy. But I do remember fawning over Jax and Shao Kahn, now those were some sexy sprites!


I don't know. Mileena's MKD costume was supposed to be Kitana's. She even wears it in some of the character's ending. So they must still have some similarities.





Well, I'm about to embarrass myself lol. This is a fighting game. This girl has steel fans and is a trained assassin, what would she need to kiss her victims for? Being the sexy female fighter, she has a sexy finisher, thus making a kiss sexy. Usually a kiss isn't that sexy, but considering it's coming from a bloody fighting game and a half naked Aphrodite, it is in this case.

As controversial as Kitana's costume is, it still doesn't compare to the abomination that is Mileena's costume. But they're both pretty abysmal.

The MK team really needs to start outsourcing when it comes to designing female costumes and models.

Why do I suddenly have the horrible feeling page fifteen of this thread is going to be knee deep in slash-fiction?...

Because I said the male sprites are sexy so that means I'm going to post Mortal Kombat Slash fiction, obviously! I'll wait til we get to page 15, though

Well we fell into a 12 page discussion about Kitana and her clothing which culminated into a "You're wrong and here's why" argument on both sides. At this point, Slashfiction is a just punishment.

I'm not going to join this argument, but I will give you guys my opinion on the outfit.

I didn't like it nearly as much as I do now. It's grown on me. It's actually becoming one of my favorites. Here's why I like it.

- It references MK2 Kitana's costume (Her hair).
- It references MK3/4 Kitana (the laced bust)
- It slightly resembles Mileena's outfit, referencing their old pallet swap/twin aspect.
- It's enough of a deviation from the normal blue/purple leotard to make her feel fresh, without sacrificing her character

I don't understand the "uninspired" argument. All Kitana has worn has been thigh highs and a leotard in the past. Now she wears a two-piece, with a loin cloth and thigh highs. They just added detail with the embroidering.

So yea, I'm totally diggin' the new look.