Sareena? Sareena who?

Gone.

Sareena...I see a lot of potential for her but her story needs new direction. I would like to see her demon side come out somehow and I would not mind her finding allegiance with another character...maybe Nitara would be a nice random hook up. Anyway,I say stay.

Never mind.

I don't know much about Sareena but she seemed pretty cool in MKA.
I'll say STAY.

Sareena seems to have her place in Mortal Kombat, but that time is gone, to me. Now it's just like she's there for the sake of filling up space. I'd say it's time to go for her.

There's potential. I already kind of covered this when discussing Noob Saibot, but she could be the pivotal plot point between the two if Noob and Sub's feud continues. Unfortunately MKA gave her the shaft by having her hook back up with Quan Chi.

I'm going to say STAY, but if we're just going to do what's been done to Reptile time and again, and have her running back to her old master, then I'd rather she was forgotten. Have her revealed as spying on Quan for one of the two, and I'll be quite happy.

Ever since MKM Sareena has been one of my favorites, and the MK Team has yet to fuck her up royally like so many of their other characters. In fact, she just keeps getting better with every game. Even Armageddon, arguably the most retarded MK in terms of story, gave her a good story!

I second the idea that Sareena's demon form should come into play as a Fatality. We've yet to see what her true form looks like, though it's been referenced no less than 3 times. I like your idea about her horrified reaction to a demon Fatality, Xia.

In terms of appearance, I'm good with having her retain the goth chick look for now. It suits her. Though they could change it up a little bit. It's definitely time for her to ditch the Brotherhood of the Shadow's badge on her clothes.

Xia pretty much covered her untapped story-potental. There's a lot she can be doing and a lot of people she can interact with. Sky's the limit for her.

Heh. This was an easy one. Most Definitely STAY!

Sareena... Just hearing her name makes me angry. To me, she's the prototypical example of a missed opportunity in MK. I've read a decent amount of fan fiction and some of it's good, some of it's bad, whatever. I'm not claiming to be Shakespeare here, but alot of what I've seen about Sareena leads me to believe that she has a TON of potential.

Heck, she's practically become an icon in the MK series simply by virtue of how much potential the diehard MK fan community sees in her. How many other MK characters can you honestly say that about?

But what happened between her appearance in Mythologies and Armageddon is nothing short of a travesty as far as MK is concerned.

Sareena should've been in MK:DA. Mythologies introduced her and MK5 should've made her a more official part of the MK universe. Instead, we got the female Sub Zero. Not saying the MK team chose one at the expense of the other, but given where MK had been, I still think that Sareena made MUCH more sense for that game.

Then they bring her in for MK:TE and MK:A. Her look is pretty plain, as far as I'm concerned. In Armageddon, she looks like a character that was made using the create tool.

Her moves are decent, but nothing that screams "signature" MK like Kitana's fans, Mileena's sais, Scorpion's harpoon, Sub-Zero's freeze etc. They're just kinda... There. So yeah, the real travesty here is twofold: They didn't build her up when they could have, and when they finally brought her in, they made her painfully average.

While I agree that she has a ton of potential to fit in to plots with other characters, I'm not too huge on the idea of finishing old storylines in MK going forward. As far as I'm concerned, Armageddon is the dividing point between the past and the future.

So where does that leave Sareena?

To me, that leaves her nowhere. She's a piece of the past that was underdeveloped and what little they did provide in regards to her was lackluster at best. Sure, she's one of the best characters introduced in the 3D era, but alot of that is based on potential and what fans see in her, not what's actually there.

The real problem with that is that I honestly don't see the MK team carrying out her potential given what they've done with her so far. You could say that about any character, that they're only as good as the ideas used by the creators, but to me, the MK team has a track record with her now and to me, that track record isn't good.

If she came back, I wouldn't mind it in the least, but I honestly don't think she'll ever live up to what many fans want her to be. I really hate to say this but...

VERDICT: GONE.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gone: 33, saved: 16

Saved thus far: Baraka, Drahmin, Ermac, Fujin, Hotaru, Kabal, Kai, Kano, Kenshi, Kira, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Nitara, Noob and Rayden.

She'd be more interesting if they made her look more extreme. In MKA, she only looked good in the pre-fight photo before the actual fight (where they show the fighters in their taunt poses). In-game, she's plain looking and drab. She also looks ugly in her victory pose where she actually looks like some drag queen.
While her primary and alternate costumes are sexy and alright, she should be depicted more to emphasize her nature as a demoness. The succubi in Glen Danzig's Verotic Comic Books could inspire the MK Team in giving her look a much needed shot in the arm.
Her story, she could surrender to the pull of her demonic nature and become this nocturnal slayer of winos, skid row derelicts, mobsters, etc. And she happens to participate in this dark tournament of MK as a representative of Hell or some shit like that.
She could also benefit from original moves

Sareena was never given proper entrance to the main series. Her MKDA:TE appearance was an insult to the fan cry for her presence, and in MKA, she didn't get the effort that any given character had received in Deception. And besides, being in MKA is like being invited to an office birthday party during your lunch hour.

I'm not as fond of the character as I was in the MK4 era, but she deserves at least one genuine place in MK. I would hate to think she's only going to be part of the Meat/Blaze/Chameleon package.

Stay.

Sareena's my favorite female character. I'd get all long-winded but I've been down that road before in too many different topics. It gets boring repeating myself all the time. Plus XD and I always say the same stuff about her and he already made his post.

Stay.

I'm torn, but I think I agree with Baraka. XD has got the right idea about her potential. There is a lot of it there. Perhaps the most likely to be capitalised on being her relationship with the Sub-Zero family. But that makes her feel like an...extra. As interesting as it would be, she'd be this confused demon girl trying to do right. Should we have characters like that moving forward?

She should have gotten her spot in Deadly Alliance, which would seemingly be the one occupied by Frost. We could have seen her grow as a character, so when Noob Saibot's identity was revealed, it would shake established relationships. Everything going on with Sareena is seemingly a footnote and behind the scenes. And then we got Ashrah, who seemingly has the exact same goal (although a different way of achieving it) -- demon girl who wants to ascend.

I've just never felt that passion for her that many others do. I do see her potential, and I understand that she is popular. I just cannot back her returning because I feel that she is too dependant on other storylines, though -- many of which will not likely continue. Sorry, but I have to say:

Verdict: GONE

I understand where you're coming from. I don't think many people here have much faith in the MK Team's ability to treat their characters right. Just look what became of Scorpion, and he's supposedly Ed Boon's favorite! The problem seems to be that the MK Team thinks to themselves, "What would be cool?" and they go with that. They don't think, "Where is this character going? How can this character progress?" They go for the glitz and the quick sell. They don't think long term when it comes to character development. Hell, the words, "Character" and "Development" don't even seem to enter their minds.

Take Shaolin Monks. Would it be cool to have Scorpion skulking around in the shadows and witness Sub-Zero sparing an opponent, thus leading to his realization that this Subz was not the one that killed him?
Or would it be cool to ... SEND THE MONKS TO HELL AND BATTLE SCORPION IN A FLAMING VOLCANO OF LAVA AND BRIMSTONE?!?!?!?!

Right there, they spit on their own established story so they could insert "something cool." This is the problem we face as fans. We like the characters, because at some point they were good. But we know from experience that the MK Team is notorious for taking dumps on their characters.

So yes, Sareena was badly neglected. However, I still feel as though her story and character remain intact. She hasn't been ruined the way Reptile, Scorpion and countless others have. Being a little late to the party does not equal her being completely ruined. If you like the character, and it seems you do, don't let the inevitable bungling of the MK Team sway your vote.

I can't say I understand the logic of someone who voted yes to Baraka, Kano, and Liu saying no to Sareena just 'cause they waited too long to put her on the roster.
How is never living up to your potential better, rather than worse, if you're been around forever, and got to spend a decade and a half sucking and proving you don't deserve any more second chances? Wouldn't it actually be BETTER to give the character who never got to be in games until now their turn in the sun?

Sareena: I Barely count her as a character, and the only way to care about her was to play MKM. I don't think I need much justification when I say leave.

Verdict: Gone

THANK YOU.

This is why I've really come to absolutely DESPISE so many of the so-called "iconic" sacred cows. They insist on giving these worn out piece of shit characters endless chances...even though most of them weren't even that good to begin with...while fresh-face characters with actual potential...like Sareena....get dropped into limbo.

Sareena should stay. There's alot of room for her to have character development.
I think that she offers alot of storytelling possibilitys.
I sadly don't think that the MK team is going to do much with her character.
But she should stay.

Subzero seems tied to everyone these days. He could start his own Avengers group with Sareena, Kenshi, Smoke, and Ashrah (because of her N00b rivalry).

Call it silly, but it's still a better idea than a reboot. I'm so worn on past mistakes, I just want to lol things up now.

That's a bit of an oversimplification of my line of reasoning. But if you don't understand my logic, then I'll explain it to you.

Yes, they waited to long to bring Sareena in, but that has nothing to do with why I don't want her to come back. That was me simply stating my anger at the MK team.

My reason for why she shouldn't return was, as I said, more of what the MK team actually DID with her when they finally brought her in for Armageddon.

To me, Baraka, Kano and Liu Kang have all been fun characters to use in the past. If you don't agree with that, then that's fine. We'll agree to disagree on that. But for me, they have a solid track record in that regard. So that's at least a point on their side.

I'm not saying that Sareena should be downgraded versus old characters, I'm just saying that when I was looking at those characters before, the fact that I liked using them was, logically enough, a point in their favor.

But in Armageddon, Sareena's moves were uninspired and her look was, again, like something you'd see coming out of the create mode. She looked like her name could just as easily have been "demon skank #3"

I voted for Baraka because he has a cool look, cool moves and has potential to be more than what he's been in in the past. Same goes for Kano. They're both characters that have been tied to others in bad stories and I believe that they could shine under brand new circumstances.

Liu... Well, part of me just wants to see them destroy the whole zombie Liu Kang thing. But part of me also believes that he could be a good plot device, espeically if Rayden goes full on vengeful God. He could be the Chosen One, but for the bad guys, in a way. To me, that's intriguing.

Sareena basically has the potential to fit in to a bunch of plotlines as a secondary character, but is she ever an overly necessary character in those stories? Not really. The "demon who wants to be good" plot would be great, if Ashrah hadn't already done it in MK:D.

Sure, you could make that exact same argument about what I just said regarding Liu Kang, that he'd be a second character to Rayden, but there's a big difference to me between being the champion for the bad guys (who was once the champion for the good guys and STILL believes he's good) and being what everyone seems to want Sareena to be.

Even having said that, like I said, I wouldn't have ANY problem if she returned, but I just don't think that she'd live up to what people like you and Xia have built her up as being. That's why she's not on MY list.

I mean, she's seriously one of your favorite female characters Razor? I'm not trying to be fecetious here at all, but what has she actually DONE in the series to deserve such strong praise?

Who the hell wants Sareena to be a secondary character? I never said that. In fact, I thought it was evident in my post that Sareena most definitely should NOT be presented as a secondary figure to others. SHE should be the focal point of her sub-plot. SHE should be the protagonist. I wasn't just spouting hyperbole when I said I believe she can be a star. She has what it takes, they just have to follow through on it.

She has a defined motivation (doesn't like being a demon/slave & wants to be free of that) and apparent conflicts in the way of that goal (she has trouble controlling herself & demons are not held in high esteem within the Mortal Kombat universe). Elimintate Noob Saibot, Ashrah, Nitara, Drahmin, Quan Chi, and any other existing character she has ties to...she STILL has that motivation and conflict. She still has that journey to make.

Inherent complexity in the very conception of her character and open possibilities to grow from it. Can she free herself from villains who want to enslave her? Can she rid herself of her demonic side, and if not, can she at least learn to live with it? Can she earn the trust of other heroes, if she ultimately becomes a good guy? How will she deal with people who just plain don't like demons? Delving into her past, if she's a demon, how/why is she good?

Neither Sub-Zero nor Ashrah are really crucial to the answering of those questions.
If you're only looking at Sareena solely from the perspective of "What can she do to make Sub-Zero or Noob Saibot's stories interesting," then yeah, I can see why you aren't interested in her or see much for her. Personally, of all Sareena's potential ties and relationships, her thing with Sub-Zero is probably the one I'm LEAST interested in. One could probably even make a case that it's also the most limiting for her, as well.

Sure, you could anchor her to Sub-Zero and have him be responsible for which side she ends up on and whether she gets what she wants, holding her hand every step of the way....but you'd piss away her potential.
I'd much rather see Sareena do it on her own, as an independant protagonist, rather than an object used to give Sub-Zero vague motivation to do something. Sure, her tie to Sub-Zero brought her to the game...but she can (and should) be elevated. Who the fuck wants to see her as just "Sub-Zero/Noob Saibot's girlfriend?"
Sareena can be much more than just another member of the Sub-Zero & Friends Comedy Hour.

The key thing, again, make it about her and run with it.



One crucial difference between Sareena and Ashrah is Sareena is only at the beginning of her journey. Ashrah's at the end of hers (which we didn't see). Portray Ashrah as the protagonist of this storyline, and where else can she go? You've got another generic, self-righteous do-gooder destroying evil because evil is bad. Ashrah's strenthes as a character are her over-zealousness and single-mindedness....and these attributes make her a better potential ANTagonist than protagonist.

A lot of people look at Ashrah as the rain on Sareena's parade....but personally, I think she could only bring good things to Sareena's story.



I won't speak for Razor, but Sareena's not just one of my favorite female characters, but me second favorite character overall. To be frank, at this point, she's one of the three remaining characters I can say I'm genuinely attached to anymore.

Why? I've always dug the Netherealm sub-plot and her place in it always intrigued me. Her motivation was up in the air for awhile, but Armageddon cinched it for me. She has instant underdog appeal. She wants to be good, but she has a prick like Quan Chi convincing her she's not & never can be. Sold me...I'm rooting for her. Maybe you didn't like using her...I did. The knives were cool...Skull Bash effective...and I love the 5-Star Kick.

And goth chicks rule.

Why is she my favorite female character?

To me, she has the most attractive design of any chick in the series, the fast knives and five star kick are hella-fun special moves, and my favorite male characters are Sub-Zero and everyone from the Netherealm, and she's a part of all of their stories. She's like a nexus of everything that is relevant to my interests.

Also, you keep saying "Ashrah did it first" but Sareena predates Ashrah by two fuckin' games. Mythologies counts and was crucial to the franchise's storyline and characters whether people like it or not, and while a gameboy version of DA might as well not even exist, it DID not only bring her back but also introduce the Tekunin, to which a whole level of Armageddon was devoted, making its canonicity undeniable.

Also Ashrah is a fucking boring character with an ugly design who's no fun to play as and I hope to never see her again, so any overlap she has with Sareena is completely irrelevant to me. Every time someone mentions Ashrah as a reason not to have Sareena, a voice in my head goes "Now do you remember why you hate other MK fans and should stop coming to this board?"

Goth chicks rule... On that, I whole heartedly agree. I do see her potential in as far as what you're describing.

I disagree with you on the difference between her and Ashrah though. Ashrah's MK:D ending doesn't have to happen or be an end to her story in the least. It should be, as I wasn't a huge fan of Ashrah. But the fact still remains that, taken in the broadest of descriptions regarding MK archtypes, Sareena and Ashrah still fall under the same "inherently evil character that wants to be good" umbrella.

All of the questions regarding her past don't do nearly as much for me as they do for you. Which is fine. I'm not disrespecting your opinion or your right to have it in the least here. Razor simply questioned my logic train and I was just letting him know why I believe she shouldn't return.

We also disagree on her move set. Again, that's no problem. Truth be told, they could fix it, give her some moves that were more unique to her. Maybe she has moves where she changes in to a more demonic looking version of herself (demonic, not monster, I'm thinking more regular eyes to black eyes, demon voice etc) and has a different set of demon moves.

But for me, part of my focus on characters is what have they done in the past, what have their looks been and can I see them with a better look, better moves and a better story?

For Sareena, I can see her with all of those things, but the tipping point for me is that at the end of the day, I just don't care enough about her, her story, her plight, her sub plot, the answers to her questions and when I see what the MK team has done with her so far, it gives me little hope that trending forward, they'll somehow magically discover how to make her in to the character that Sareena fans really want.

If they did though? You bet I'd be lining up to play as her, because while I don't think that she should be back, I have to reiterate once more that I wouldn't have a problem with her returning, especially if the MK team made her in to the character she should've been all along.

I've always liked Sareena. I agree with others about her having lots of potential. I don't really have anything bad to say about her or to add to all that's been said already. However, I do feel that we may not see her next game. She never had a proper introduction into the main games and the one she appeared in she didn't even get the chance to get herself a signature Fatality. I fear she may be viewed as a casualty and lost cause to the MK Team. If they really are intending to focus on the big names in the series, then I don't see Sareena returning this game but perhaps she may do later in the future. It'll be interesting to see what happens to her and what is done with her.

I think that we may have had some miscommunication here.

First off, if someone saying something like "Ashrah did it first" makes you angry enough that you feel like you should stop coming to the boards, then that's your cross to bear, I guess. But more on that misinterpretation in a bit. You act like I'm some a-hole troll for having the audacity to ask you to explain your opinion further.

I never asked you why she was your favorite character. I asked you what she's actually DONE in the series to warrant such high praise. I mean, liking her moves and her look (which we agree to disagree on both of those things, which is fine) is one thing, but to say that she's your favorite female after having been in only one of the main, all console fighting games?

It just kinda made me want to know more as to what you think she's actually done to deserve such a lofty designation as being your favorite female character. I mean, her moves, her look, her story, to me they're all just average, so I thought that maybe there was something more there.

But hell man, you can have any favorite character you want. If Hsu Hao were your favorite, I might not agree with you, but I'd at least respect your opinion.

Of course, I obviously respect your opinion regardless, which is why I asked for some further explanation to begin with. You seem to act like I was attacking you or something.

Regardless, as for your seething hatred of anyone that points out that Ashrah "did it first," look... I'm not some reject n00b that came on this site two weeks ago. I've been here since it was MK5.org and I've been playing MK since the first one came out in arcades. I beat Mythologies, as painful as it was to play through.

So relax on the frustration a bit Razor. I never said that Ashrah "did it first." I said:

"Sareena basically has the potential to fit in to a bunch of plotlines as a secondary character, but is she ever an overly necessary character in those stories? Not really. The "demon who wants to be good" plot would be great, if Ashrah hadn't already done it in MK:D."

I meant to imply that going forward in the future, if Sareena were using that as her personal struggle, as others have described, it would feel rather redundant because we've had two characters using that storyline already in the series.

That wasn't to say that Ashrah did it BEFORE Sareena. I was a bit unclear there and for that, I apologize. But I never meant to imply that Ashrah predated Sareena in any way, shape or form because, again, I've played through Mythologies.

I just said that the "demon who wants to be good" plot was used by a character in MK:D. I couldn't care less who did it first. The point is that two characters now, Sareena and Ashrah, are occupying the same archtype.

You might not care about that, and that's fine, I don't like Ashrah either in fact, but it doesn't change the fact that for me, it's not a point in her favor that she's an overused archtype for the series.

Also, it's pretty selective to say that a character that was unplayable from a crappy spin off doesn't overlap another character's story simply because the character she's overlapping (from a main game in the series) sucks, but that's fine, I see your line of logic there.

If you hadn't read my first post, it also said that I like Sareena and it made me mad that they didn't introduce her MK:DA, establishing her long before Armageddon. So I definitely like her. I also wouldn't mind it if she came back in the least, I'm just saying that if we were going on what the MK team has actually DONE with her up to this point, from her look to her moves, her story and what not, I haven't seen nearly enough to think that the MK team would make her much better going forward.

I think this is kind of a weak arguement.

By this logic, we should never have had Kung Lao because we already had a "heroic Shaolin monk" in Liu Kang....even though Kung Lao was superior to Liu is almost every way.
Or we should never have gotten Quan Chi because we already had a "conniving evil sorcerer" with Shang Tsung....even though, aside from that, they're very different characters.



See to I don't even regard Ashrah as "struggling to turn good." She was a demon, found the Kriss, and has been killing evil things ever since. We've little sense of any internal struggle for her....she comes across much more of a self-righteous "If I kill it, it's because it's evil and I'm right."

We were introduced to Ashrah has one step away from purifing herself and since then, she's gone on to attempting genocide against Nitara's people. I really cannot see how Sareena becomes redundant in Ashrah's presence.

Yeah, they're both demons who, in some way/shape/form, want to be "good." Beyond that, the execution of these characters are very different. Just aesthetically speaking, by appearances alone, they're night and day. The could improve special moves where they need be improved and maybe even incorporate they difference in general gameplay: where Sareena is swift, speedy, and maybe offensive oriented...you could have Ashrah slower, steady, and more defensive.
And like I said, I think they could only complement one another by playing they're difference against each other. That's what an antithesis character is: the other side of the same coin.