To be honest with you, I wouldn't mind seeing both of them in the next game. It'd be great timing considering the next game's likely story. I'm not sure what to think of in terms of moves for Kia, but for Jataaka, I had thought that it would be interesting to model her laser sword after the Abyssinian shotel or the Egyptian khopesh to give that sort of assassin feel if that makes any sense.

I can only have one? But that throws my tag team endurance hidden battle theory right out of the window.

Hmm...

I'll go with Jatakka because you could easily play with her looks, I think Kia got the most exposure so it would be hard to go against raven haired amazonesque lady.

But I would rather have all three of Quan Chi's wenches in the game in some form.

Jataaka. She looks like demon Storm but I like it.

I can't help comparing Kia to Sareena in terms of looks and Kia is eh in comparison.

Personally, I'd rather have a Kia-Jataaka tag team similar to Noob-Smoke while Sareena is the breakout character but that's just me.

I also would prefer them to function as an inseparable team, if they HAD to be playable characters.

Though that might not work out since I think all MK games forever from now on should keep Tag Mode. So if you had a single character that was actually a team of two, and you used them in tag...basically, picking Kia/Jataaka and picking their partner would give you a three person team. It might be unbalanced, or bork up the tagging in and out control scheme.

Granted, having a "second character" come out to attack for you as part of your moveset seems to work fine with Noob Saibot and his shadow clone. And having three characters in a Tag match would actually allow you to fight as Kia, Jataaka, and Sareena all at the same time if she was also in the game, which would be fun. So maybe there's no problem at all.

Anyway, the biggest problem I have with Kia and Jataaka is I can't see how either one could have a story.

Sareena has a story specifically because she broke from the mold that Kia and Jataaka stayed a part of, she betrayed Quan Chi and tried to become a goodguy. Ashrah has a story specifically because she did the same thing, but with the twist that she did it because a magic sword is turning her from a demon into some kind of vampire-slaying Angel.

They can't ALL betray Quan. And characters who are loyal henchmen, like Baraka and Reptile, tend to not ever do much. And all of the slavegirls have the same backstory, "I was a demon, then Quan came along and used his magic to make me look human, so now I do stuff for him"

What possible variation on the story is left to give either of them a unique or interesting bio and ending? Sometimes, characters who were created to be background NPCs and do nothing more than fill out the ranks of an army just aren't suited to be anything more than that.

The women can remain Quan Chi's pawns but they could develop a story by having anger/hatred towards each other, planning some cunning traps and giving out wrong information to rip each other apart. At one point they would face their worst nightmare; becoming fused together for good. As Jataakia (or something) they would be a feminine, demonic abomination.

Making Jataaka and Kia a tag team like Noob and Smoke could work, but if they do it, they should make sure that both gals have enough unique moves of their own. Noob had only one move of his own, and it involved Smoke.

@Razorsedge701
Neither women would need to betray Quan Chi. One, or both of them could actually be in love with him, and be happy to be one of his assassins. And even as Quan Chi's servants, they could still have personal backstories, unfinished business from their previous lives, something like that. Also, even if one or both of them betrayed Quan Chi, doesn't mean they couldn't remain evil, which would make them different from Sareena and Ashrah (though I think Ashrah is evil, but in the misguided sense). In any case, I just want to know more about Jataaka and Kia, Jataaka especially, and I want them as playable characters.

I don't believe you understood what I said about Sareena. Why, when they came up with those characters, did they decide Sareena would be the one to break out on her own? Why couldn't either Jataaka or Kia be the one to do it? If you forget the cutscenes just for a minute, gameplay-wise, and design-wise, Sareena doesn't appear to have that much more going for her than the other two. At least nothing that absolutely required her to be the star. They just decided she would be the one.

Just out of curiousity, if Ashrah hadn't been created, do you think her story could have worked for either Jataaka or Kia? How would you feel if they retconned Ashrah out of existence, specifically for the sake of giving either gals her story? Just like they turned Smoke's "humanized cyborg" story into Cyrax's, which then became Sub-Zero's in the last game.

I always thought it was a missed opportunity to not have Kia be Ashrah. I'd like to see Sareena, Jataaka, and Kia become bigger players in MK. Gun to my head if I had to pick one, like most people here, I'd pick Jataaka. She just has a more interesting look.

Well hypothetically If you were to retcon one of the two away and replace her with Ashrah the easiest option would be Kia.

Besides the dumb car name there's not a lot visually interesting about her that Sareena doesn't already have and more.

I think Sareena was probably created first and the other two girls' designs are based on hers, that's why she's the one who got the "helps Sub-Zero out" story in Mythologies, she was created specifically to fill that role and the other two were made after to be filler.

Like notice how her design is slightly more detailed than the other two, like she's the only one of the three whose hair is TWO colors. Kia's is all black, Jataaka's is all white, Sareena has both. (And note how the striped hair is common to other characters who've been changed in some way by Quan Chi's magic, namely Sindel and Reiko.)

Did Tobias ever even do any released concept art of Kia or Jataaka? Because I can't recall ever seeing any, but the strategy guides and promotional material like the website had official Tobias-drawn art of Sareena, which implies she was specifically created to be the "main character" out of the three.

As long as Sareena is in the game, whose two become a bit redundant. It's not that they can't be turned into interesting characters, but I doubt it'll happen. MK'verse has much more prominent characters, who could expanded on.

Jataaka is the one to go with. MK is in need of an Amazon looking character and she is the perfect fit.
They can seriously drop Sonya and replace her with Kia.
I so hope that Ashrah does return in MK10 along with Li Mei and Sareena. I wouldn't mind if NRS had brought in more females to replace Kitana, Jade and Mileena.

I'd rather they just remain side characters, Sareena is the main demon of the trio really.

I really wouldn't mind if either came back and gotten the same kind of chance that Sareena did (in a way) and develop them a bit more than just what we have seen from them.

But if I had to choose which one I'd like to see, it would have to be Jataaka. I liked her more than the two other assassins, I don't know why.

Although I did find it a bit funny that they used two different actresses for her character. The one who played her in the cutscenes was not the one that was used digitized. Thought that was a bit amusing.