Virtual Skin: Mortal Kombat Part 1

     "Subtle" is not a word I would use to describe Mortal Kombat.  Neither is "feminist," although recent efforts to diversify the game's, *ahem*, female costumes have drawn attention to that uniquely American hypocrisy, that we may bear witness to endless violence but never to sexuality.  Blood, guts, brains, bones--but no skin.  Speaking of skin, this entry is the first in a series where I will try to express my feelings on video game character design from an audience perspective: the hidden parts, the exposed parts, and how the interplay between the two makes me feel.  This week: what does the way the women of Mortal Kombat look say about the developers?  What kinds of messages does it send?  And, finally, why do I relate to them so much despite their shallowness as characters?

    First, a disclaimer: much has been said about sex and violence in video games, most of it shallow.  I won't be making pronouncements about whether any of these characters are appropriately depicted.  That would be like saying pro-wrestling promotes unrealistic body standards for men.  Maybe true, but entirely beside the point.  Also, any of the opinions I express here are entirely unqualified.  I've been playing video games for most of my life, but I have no idea what goes into making one.  I also don't have a media studies degree.  If you happen to have experience with either of these and feel that I've missed something, please chime in.

    Anyhow.  Let's talk about Mileena.  

    As is typical in fantasy media, the protagonists of Mortal Kombat are infinitely less interesting than the antagonists.  For the most part, the male antagonists are also boring and dumb.  A big guy with a hammer.  A sorcerer.  Another big guy, this time with an Aztec theme.  Another sorcerer.  Big deal.  Some of the female antagonists, however, buck this trend.  The most interesting recurring antagonist is Mileena, half sister to Kitana.  In a game like Mortal Kombat, there's not a lot of time to establish backstory or explore the sociological reasons for her villainy.  Instead, we are presented with a concise set of traits that clearly peg her as one of the bad guys.  First, she wasn't born "naturally" but was instead grown artificially from her father's DNA.  No natural birth means no natural right to rule--a piece of medieval logic that MK's absurd story takes very seriously.  Second, her body isn't easily desirable.  With her face covered, she is almost identical to her conventionally attractive sister.  However, her beauty is marred by a shark-like mouth and tongue that behaves like a cross between a snake and a parasitic worm (apparently for eating flesh.  No homo).  An unnatural woman posing as a natural one, hiding in plain sight, is a terrifying thought to the heterosexual mind.

Exhibit A: The duality of men.

    A side effect of the COVID pandemic is that I have felt very safe in the women's bathroom.  With a mask over my face, I pass unmolested.  What must this look like to straight people?  I'm being ironic, of course--I am reminded every day that they see me like they see Mileena, as a sideshow freak.  A pity that they are no longer allowed to admit it.  The lesson I learn every day is this: no one could love a face like mine.  Sorry for making this into a "personal essay," but monsters like her teach people lessons about people like me.  In addition to being unnatural, Mileena's other defining quality is probably her viciousness.  One of her motivations for attempting to murder the other characters is her jealousy towards her sister.  Incidentally, in MK11 Kitana actually inherits Mileena's kingdom based on her brief adoption by Shao Khan.  Try doing the math on that one.

    You might be wondering why I've even bothered to analyze the plot of a game whose title is literally Mortal Kombat.  Fighting games are sort of like pro wrestling or pornography in that the story is usually a thin excuse to get us to the action.  Paradoxically, however, what story exists is often full of pathos.  In order to enjoy watching Baraka receive an amateur lobotomy from the tip of Kung Lao's hat, we have to believe in some dusty corner of our minds that he had it coming.  What I am arguing, essentially, is that in the logic of the story Mileena has it coming because of the ways she deviates from acceptable kinds of femininity.

    Despite how much we are clearly supposed to hate Mileena, there is something undeniably likeable about her.  Her animations and dialogue are infused with an infectious sense of self, an unflappable attitude of "look at how much these fools underestimate me."  She is unabashedly disgusting, unashamedly sexual, and performs pretty well in the meta to boot.  Like many of the other characters who have been around since the beginning, Mileena has grown textured as a result of repeat portrayals from what is essentially a transphobic joke ("but her face!") into a campy antihero.  Part of this freedom comes from her parallel existence outside of the mythology of the main story.  An entire essay could be written on the tension between how each character is written within the single player campaign and within the pre- and post-match dialogue in multiplayer, but there isn't room for it here.  Suffice it to say that camp is much more liberating than self-seriousness for monstrous characters.

Yes queen, slay.

    Speaking of camp, I think the key to understanding what makes Mileena compelling as well as harmful is her aforementioned lack of shame.  From one perspective, it's tragic that she will never be loved like a real woman.  Rejection and disgust have driven her into a state of desperate anger.  You can hear it in her voice: she expects people to react hatefully, and they do.  A cautionary tale.  From another, though, it's liberating to be traditionally undesirable.  Every Mortal Kombat character participates in vicious violence, but only Mileena is allowed to embody it, to take pleasure in the gruesome work of being a Kombatant.  With most of the protagonists, there is a tension between their amiability and the psychopathic levels of gore they leave in their wake.  Maybe I like Mileena because she refuses to be self-righteous in the face of her own depravity.  She walks through the world the way I'd like to: as herself.  Take her or leave her.

In the newest Mortal Kombat, she remarks that a million souls cried out for her return.  One can hardly blame them.