Growing Pains: Mortal Kombat's Mileena

I’ve written quite a bit about Mortal Kombat’s Kitana. There was her five-part Retrospective, a look at MK11 and how she just can’t win, and most recently, a look at how she’s been adapted in various media.
Naturally, though, one can’t talk about Kitana without sooner or later bringing up her counterpart, rival, and dark half: Mileena. 

Like her "twin sister," Mileena has come to be a very popular, beloved and iconic character in the franchise. Also like Kitana, a big reason for that is her developed storyline and character in addition to memorable gameplay and designs—to say nothing of her trademark grin, which is memorable to say the least.

Look at that smile...

I thought I'd prattle on a bit about her. What drives and motivates her. What made her what she is, and what stands in the way of her becoming more. And explore whether her hated sister really is the source of her woes after all, and what she could do about it.

Adapting Kitana: Boring Hero or Redeemed Prize

Kitana.

Mortal Kombat mainstay. Icon of the franchise. General fan-favorite.
One of the more developed characters story-wise, and one of the few to undergo an actual arc through the series.

And, for some reason, a character adaptations of Mortal Kombat just can’t get right.

The story has been adapted to outside media quite a few times now—movies, comics, TV, animation—and has even been rebooted/re-imagined in the games themselves. Kitana, as would be expected for a popular and iconic character, has been featured in most if not all of them.

But, for some reason, we’ve yet to see a great interpretation of her. For all the times she’s appeared in MK films, animation, etc., few (if any) have managed to truly nail her. Have they come close? Sure. Is she the only character who’s been done dirty by adaptations? Absolutely not. Has she gotten it worse than others? Not really.

Most would point out—not incorrectly—that Mortal Kombat is just a video game. Not exactly Shakespeare. For all the lore present, when you get down to it, it’s a collection of familiar archetypes, stock characters, and cliches. Should any of these characters, including Kitana, really be that hard to translate to film, television, comics, etc.?

So how and why—despite multiple goes and despite being one of the franchise’s most popular and iconic characters—do so many miss the mark?

Kitana Can't Have Nice Things

So, as readers of this blog know, I did a big retrospective on Mortal Kombat’s Kitana—looking back on her debut and backstory … development into one of the franchise’s best characters and heroes … downfall into a damsel in distress and princess stereotype … hitting rock bottom with retcons and getting stuffed in the fridge … and finally capping it off with a somewhat happy ending.

As I said at the end of the retrospective, I was content to accept her MKX arcade ending as closure for the Kitana I knew and loved—the Kitana from MK2 to Armageddon, dubbed Kitana Prime. I decided to take the ending as confirmation that there are multiple parallel timelines and therefore Kitana Prime and the original MK timeline not only still existed, but that she had survived Armageddon, eventually united the realms, and finally defeated Shao Kahn once and for all.

A satisfyingly happy if bittersweet ending, leaving the Kitana introduced in MK9—dubbed Nu-Kitana—to carry on as Empress of the Netherealm in the current timeline.
I figured if she appeared in future games, it would be that version of the character, allowing me to effectively retire my fandom as it was.

But of course, as it does, news of Mortal Kombat 11 crossed my path. And wouldn't you know, they couldn't leave well enough alone.

***SPOILERS AHEAD FOR MORTAL KOMBAT 11 AND AFTERMATH FOR THOSE WHO CARE***

Flashpointing the DCEU

So...the state of the DC Extended Universe.

After a rocky and divisive start, with Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam!, the DC movies seem like they may be finally finding their stride. So naturally, many wonder where they go now with their shared universe and if any planned crossover movies should be expected.

As of this writing, I understand the plan is to back off on continuity for now. They're just going to focus on solo movies and not really worry about how or even if they fit into one another.

And for the record, I think that's wise.
Better to just let these characters have their own movies moving forward, I don't need the story of Wonder Woman 1984 to be dictated by what might happen in a future Superman or Batman film, and personally, I would not lose sleep if we never see another Justice League movie any time soon.

Having said that, not too long ago, there was talk of using the Flash's movie—titled Flashpoint at the time—as a way to reboot the DCEU or, at least, erase the more divisive elements.
For those who don't follow comics, Flashpoint was a big event crossover involving time travel and history getting rewritten, leading to DC's New 52 reboot.

A while back, I was thinking about how they could fix or soft-reboot the DCEU with Flashpoint, and it occurred to me there might be an easy way to do it.

Game of Thrones: What Happened After?

And thus, Game of Thrones has come to an end.

But what became of Westeros and the surviving characters in the aftermath? What future awaits the Six Kingdoms and independent North, good or ill? Who went on to prosper, and who sank into failure?

Let us take this journey....

Daenerys's Rage-Quit

So there it is. After eight seasons, Game of Thrones comes an end.

And...oof. What an ending it was.

As much as it seems like a bandwagon thing, I'm inclined to agree the show fizzled out in a spectacularly anti-climactic and unworthy letdown. I love the books, and the previous seasons of the show were arguably some of the best television produced, but, as tends to happen from time to time, when it came time to stick the landing...it crashed and burned.

Many would say things took a turn when the show went beyond the books—which would be circa Season 5—but I think the last two seasons, more than any other, saw a catastrophic drop in writing quality.

There's going to be no shortage of articles, essays and think-pieces all over the internet exploring the how and why, but one thing I want to focus on here is how things turned out for the Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen. 

**Spoilers ahead, obviously, for those who might care**

All Just Turds In the Wind - Thoughts on "Venom"

Late to the party again, but I want to talk about my boy and his movie.

So I saw Venom opening weekend. Up front, before I go into detail, I'll say I enjoyed it. It is definitely not a good movie, but I was entertained. I wouldn't even call it a "so bad it's good" type of thing—the film does seem to be in on the joke. It knows what it is.
To be perfectly frank and somewhat objective, aside from Tom Hardy's performance (easily the best part) and some flashes of absurd black comedy (which they could've used more of), it's an in one ear, out the other disposable superhero flick.

That's my brief summation review. From here, my actual thoughts on the film. SPOILERS ahead for those who care.