Li Mei Mk - Blog Posts

MK1 Tanya Rewrite

When it comes to MK1 character writing, I believe Tanya, alongside Nitara and Havik, got the short end. Tanya’s role is too similar to Jade and she doesn’t have too much going for her other than being the leader of the Umgadi and Mileena’s lover. Her backstory is also a bit too bland compared to most characters. I hope this changes in the next story. I had a small idea of how I would rewrite and add dimension to her character. 

Instead of being chosen as an infant like most Umgadi, Tanya began training later in her childhood. She was born on the poorer side of Outworld where her parents owed a massive debt to a corrupt merchant. When her parents died, the debt was transferred to Tanya and she had to steal to survive and pay the debt. Tanya trained herself to fight others who tried to hurt her for money or just for fun. After years of suffering under the merchant’s hand, Tanya got her chance for freedom when a Sun Do constable recruited her to be their mole for their investigation on the merchant who was suspected of trafficking illegal substances and Outworlders. Tanya succeeded and the merchant was arrested. The constable was so impressed by Tanya’s fortitude and fighting skills that she asked an old friend, Li Mei, who was the leader of the Umgadi at the time, to take her in. With that fortitude and natural ability to fight, Tanya rose in the ranks and became the new leader- the youngest to ever be appointed. It was bittersweet since Tanya’s goal was to acquire a higher standing in the Umgadi, but she felt betrayed by Li Mei’s “negligence.” 

Tanya didn’t have a strong opinion of the royal family until her leadership role. With more direct contact with the family, Tanya conversed with the family, especially Mileena. Their first interaction was during Tanya’s patrol when she found Mileena hiding to grieve for her father alone. Feeling sympathy for the princess, Tanya lent her ear and listened to Mileena as she vented about missing her father and the pressure she felt to be as great of an empress as her mother. Since losing Li Mei, Tanya didn’t have a personal connection with anyone until that talk with Mileena. Afterward, Mileena would frequently sneak out of her room and walk alongside Tanya during patrols. They would talk about anything that came to mind or enjoy each other’s company in silence. Their first kiss was the first time Tanya felt alive, but she also felt incredible dread since she betrayed the Umgadi- her family. Tanya avoided Mileena for weeks, yet couldn’t deny her love for her. That’s when their affair began. 

MK1 Characters Ages Headcanon

Vaeternus: 1 year = 6k years

Edenian: 1 year = 400 years

Draconian: 1 year = 250 years 

*For Vaeternus, I made these calculations based on a Nitara intro. I believe Kung Lao asks her how old she is and Nitara says that she was a little girl when humans discovered fire. There were many differing accounts on when that happened but I decided to pick the one that said fire was a widespread, controlled source 125,000 years ago. It was the second most recent account- first being 12,000 years ago. I chose 125k since I assume the intro I mentioned is meant to hint how much older Vaeternus is than most races.  

*Since the story confirmed that Kitana and Mileena were 10,000 years old, I used the number to find an estimated number of Edenian years that equals a single human year. I considered Kitana and Mileena to be 25 in human years since it divides 10,000 evenly and the sisters look close to that age- dividing those numbers equaled to 400 years. So, 400 Edenian years is equal to 1 human year. 

*In the story, Sindel confronted Shao and mentioned how she remembered the sickly boy he was. This is evidence that Sindel is older than Shao by a few years- ten years at minimum; however, in my opinion, Shao looks older than Sindel so I believe the Draconian species have a shorter life span than Edenians, but they are still much larger than human’s. Unlike with the Edenians, I decided to have 250 Draconian years be equivalent to one human year because of an idea of an estimated range.  

*Liu Kang is slightly older than the Big Bang in the New Era. I couldn’t calculate Geras’ age since he’s experienced a ginormous amount of timelines. Calculations over a trillion is too difficult for any calculator to compute. 

Ashrah: 29 (human years) 

Baraka: 22k (Edenian years), 55 (human years) 

General Shao: 12,500 (Draconian years), 50 (human years) 

Geras: Can’t Calculate

Havik: 27 (human years) 

Johnny Cage: 28 

Kenshi Takahashi: 28 

Kitana: 10k (Edenian years; canon), 25 (human years) 

Kung Lao: 24 

Jerrod: 20k (Edenian years), 50 (human years)  [If he were alive]

Li Mei: 18,400 (Edenian years), 46 (human years)

Liu Kang: 13.8 billion 

Mileena: 10k (Edenian years; canon), 25 (human years) 

Nitara: 150k (Vaeternus years) or 12k (Vaeternus years), 25 (human years) 

Raiden: 24 

Rain: 10,400 (Edenian years), 26 (human years)

Reiko: 26 (human years) 

Reptile: 29 (human years) 

Kuai Liang/Scorpion: 26 

Sindel: 19,200 (Edenian years), 48 (human years) 

Shang Tsung: 27 (human years) 

Tomas Vrbada/Smoke: 25 

Bi-Han/Sub-Zero: 28 

Tanya: 9,600 (Edenian years), 24 (human years)

MK1 Character Writing Review

I'm curious about other fans' opinions on MK1's character writing. Personally, I think it's improved most characters but there are some issues.

Ashrah: I'm happy she's back because Ashrah was the 3D-era character I wanted to return. I really like that they kept her story from the 3D era but improved it. I'm curious to see if she'll get corrupted by the Kriss in the next game.

Baraka: His story improved immensely. I never cared for Baraka in the previous games since he wasn't developed enough and was just one of Shao Kahn's henchmen. Baraka being a victim of Tarkat makes him more sympathetic and interesting. I hope he gets a happy ending but I think he'll die in the later games.

General Shao: I'm a bit disappointed in how he was written. I was hoping we'd learn about his past and how it affected his personality. Shao was born with a weak body, so I expected his father to be abusive by forcing Shao to go beyond his limits. This would cause Shao to believe being strong is the only thing that matters. Hopefully, the next story portrays Shao as more than a stock villain.

Geras: I really liked this version of Geras compared to MK11's since he's more than Kronika's minion. He's loyal to Liu Kang but they are friends/partners, and Geras wants to protect Liu Kang's timeline because he believes in its potential.

Havik: I was really interested in learning about Havik, his powers, and the Chaos realm. I was disappointed that Havik was a minor character and his powers weren't explained. I heard that there will be a story taking place in Seido/Order Realm so I'm crossing my fingers that we'll have a great story for Havik and other Order/Chaos realm characters.

Johnny Cage: His backstory and personality didn't change that much which I'm glad for because MK9-11 Johnny had one of the best character arcs in that era. I really enjoyed his bromance with Kenshi and his comedic moments were really fun (my favorite was the Alien reference).

Kenshi: Kenshi's story was already good but it was improved upon and explored further. Kenshi wanting Sento to protect his family from the Yakuza and bring back the Taira clan made me sympathize with him, and actually seeing how he loses his sight was horrifying and broke my heart. His bromance was Johnny was one of my favorite parts and I hope they are in future games together.

Kitana: I found Kitana kind of bland. Unfortunately, with her old goal of wanting to be an Empress going to Mileena, she lost what made her interesting. She felt more like Mileena's sidekick rather than her own character. Maybe that'll change in future games since she's a part of Mileena's council.

Kung Lao: Kung Lao was likable and enjoyable. I don't have much to say other than that. I want the next story to explore his ego/arrogance and why he has that attitude. Although I really like Raiden as Earthrealm's champion, I sort of wish Kung Lao was the champion since he's wished for that opportunity for so long.

Li Mei: Li Mei is an okay character. She's kind of boring since she's a "follow the rules" character. Her and Sindel's friendship was the most interesting aspect of her. Li Mei's powers are really cool though, and I'm a big fan of Kelly Hu (her va).

Liu Kang: Having Liu Kang as Earth's protector and Time Keeper made his character more interesting compared to him being the "Chosen One." I am slightly disappointed in the way he was written. I expected/wanted Liu Kang to be a neutral good character where he's willing to do bad things to keep the peace. They kind of did that with Liu Kang creating meaningless lives for Shang Tsung and Quan-Chi, but he was never called out for those decisions. I also wanted the other characters to start questioning Liu Kang about why there are still tragedies occurring and why doesn't he intervene. Though we get it in the battle intros, I wanted it explored in the story. The writing for how Liu Kang's time powers was also pretty unclear. The power's restrictions were never specified so it's not obvious which events in the timeline are Liu Kang's mistakes or not.

Mileena: Adored her in this game! I love seeing Mileena happy for once with a loving family and a good life. I expected her to be overtaken by Tarkat the whole but was happy to see her with a regular mouth for most of the game. Having her as Empress is really interesting and can't wait to see more of that.

Nitara: I really wanted to like Nitara, yet she's so bland. I thought we would learn about Vaternius, and see Nitara being a truly neutral character. Compared to the other 3D characters in the game, she was the most disappointing.

Raiden: This version of Raiden is way more likable than previous iterations. He's nice, humble, handsome, and strong. He's literally the perfect man! I'd like his anger issues from the previous iterations to be developed in the next story. His anger would get out of control after a tragedy and he feels like being more ruthless is more beneficial to protecting everyone.

Rain: I don't have much to say about Rain. He's kind of boring and was sidelined in the game. Maybe he'll have some kind of connection to Delia and Argus, which will introduce them to the new timeline.

Reiko: Reiko's okay. The only thing I'm really interested in is his relationship with General Shao and it's mostly me wondering whether Shao is capable of caring/loving someone.

Reptile: Love this rendition of Reptile! Like Baraka, Syzoth is more complex and isn't only Shao Kahn's minion. He has one of my favorite designs in the game and his backstory shows the issue of internal racism. The only thing I'm iffy about is his family that was murdered was his wife and son since that is very similar to Baraka's backstory to losing his wife and children to Tarkat. Plus, it's kind of weird that he moved on with Ashrah relatively quickly. I would've preferred if his family were his parents or siblings.

Scorpion: At first, I was a bit iffy about Kuai Liang being Scorpion but think it was a good choice since it makes the rivalry between the Lin Kuei and the Shirai-Ryu more personal. I'm excited to see how his and Sub-Zero's story moves forward.

Sindel: Good queen and mom Sindel is best Sindel! She was very likable! I had a feeling she would die in the story though her soul being absorbed into Ermac was unexpected. I'm interested in where this story will go.

Shang Tsung: I really enjoyed how sassy Shang Tsung was, and was glad he was the main villain after so long. The only thing I'm disappointed in is we didn't see more of his backstory. Also, the idea of Shang Tsung being evil all along NRS was going with was pretty lame. I wanted to see whether Shang Tsung was truly born evil or if was he made that way because of his hardships. It being the latter would've been intriguing because it means Liu Kang technically created Shang Tsung.

Smoke: Smoke is a sweetie, but didn't have much going for him. I was really interested in Smoke when he was in MK9 so I expected him to have his own chapter and develop. Maybe the Lin Kuei/Shirai Ryu war will give me that.

Sub-Zero: I hoped Bi-Han would be an interesting antihero instead of a generic villain. His betrayal is fine, but I wish he was more indecisive or slightly regretful of his choice since he lost his brothers. For example, when he slashed Kuai Liang's eye, I wanted to see him be regretful and sorry for hurting his brother. We didn't get that, which is one of the biggest disappointments of the story.

Tanya: I'm neutral with Tanya. Personally, her role and personality are too similar to Jade's. She felt like a totally different character who happened to have the same name as the original Tanya. Changing a character's story is okay, yet there should be some part of the original iteration that stays. I do find her and Mileena super sweet and I hope they live a happy life.

Nah fr though, they talk a lot of shit for people who SNATCH UP INFANT BABY GIRLS! I don’t think Li Mei is the problem…

i swear every time li mei opened her mouth they was just coming after her. I DONT LIKE THATTT. like i get why they’re upset but did they even try to hear her out?

edit: saw some tower endings, yea wtf. they’re legit mad at her for something she didn’t do???

I love him soooooo much 😔🖤

I'm learning to draw using references, and I finally decided to give Reiko all his masculinity in the image (it seems I've been playing around with my hcs for too long and need to stop)

REIKOMEI NATION WAKE UP WAKE UP REIKOMEI NATION!!!

I hated them at first, but now I even like them...they could have an interesting dynamic...