User:Lakepoint/Sonya Blade

Sonya Blade is a real-life character in the non-real Mortal Kombat universe. She was pulled into a wormholePortal as she tried to retrieve her laundry from one of those huge coin-laundry washing machines. That's how she ended up in a video game and became the personal property of series creator Ed Boon. She first appeared in Mortal Kombat, wearing what she'd been wearing when she was sucked into the Portal. Ed Boon then decided to rest her and in Mortal Kombat 2, tied her up in the courtyard. She returned in Mortal Kombat 3, Ultimate, Triology, Mortal Kombat 4 and Deadly Alliance. She had to take a break in Deception, requesting permission to take leave while dead, but then returned in Armageddon. She was present in MK vs DC and she is currently a playable characterdoll in Mortal Kombat 9.

Appearance

Sonya had grown more and more ugly as the series have progressed...

Storyline

Lieutenant Sonya Blade is a member of an elite United States Special Forces unit called Special Forces. This unit was created for one purpose and one purpose only: Kill Kano! Her impulsiveness is catalyzed by her superior and good friend Major Jackson Briggs, who is in love with her and hates Johnny Cage more than Sonya hates Kano.

Mortal Kombat

Sonya and her team were in hot pursuit of Kano, the leader of the Black Dragon international crime organization. After he jumped onto a ship, they followed him to a remote island where Shang Tsung's Mortal Kombat tournament was being held. Upon arrival, they were ambushed by Tsung's personal guard. To keep her team safe, she agreed to compete in the tournament. Shang Tsung, however, had no intention of fulfilling his end of the bargain and had her unit killed. After Shang Tsung was defeated by Liu Kang in the final battle, Sonya teamed up with Johnny Cage and Kano, ignoring her personal feelings for the sake of survival, to fight Goro on the bridge high above the pit. During the battle, the island started to crumble and both she and Kano were taken prisoner to Outworld by Shang Tsung to appease the Outworld emperor, Shao Kahn Ed Boon.

Mortal Kombat II

Sonya was invited to be the guest hostage of Shao Kahn. She graciously declined, but in true Borat-style, Shao Kahn commented: "Agreement not necessary".

Mortal Kombat 3

Sonya was one of a few selected Earthrealm warriors whose souls were not taken following Kahn's invasion of Earth (Shao Kahn objects: she had no soul to be taken). She encountered Kano on top of a skyscraper near Kahn's fortress. Kano eventually gained the upper hand in combat and Sonya feigned defeat, but when Kano advanced and grabbed Sonya by her hair to finish her off, she hurled Kano off the roof to his apparent death. However, Kano had taken a lock of her hair with him so Sonya jumped off after him and beat him bloody all the way down. She was so preoccupied with messing up his face that she didn't even notice he was raping her until they reached the bottom. She then dragged him all the way back to the roof-top and threw him off again. Kano once again took a lock of her hair...

Mortal Kombat 4

After helping to save the Earth from destruction, Sonya went back to her old ways of chasing after criminal men. Since Kano was dead, she had to find a new scapegoat. This was Jarek. Jarek had fled to Edenia while Sonya was chasing him. This led Sonya and Jax to team up with Raiden and Liu Kang to free that realm from the Fallen Elder God Shinnok's grasp, and to prevent him from coming to Earth. After Shinnok's defeat, in which Jarek had reluctantly participated to save himself, Jarek tried to kill Sonya, but Jax interfered and dropped him off a cliff. It was presumed that Jarek had been killed. After returning to Earthrealm, Jax and Sonya found Cyrax malfunctioning in a desert. The two brought the cyborg back to the OIA headquarters, where they were able to restore Cyrax's humanity. In return, Cyrax joined the agency.

Ed Boon cited particular problems with porting Sonya Blade to the 3d environment of Mortal Kombat 4. "I mean, the others were easy, but gosh, Sonya just didn't want to go! We tried to inflate her like a balloon to round her off, but you know Sonya, she's such a fiery bag of wind as it is, any more and she'd have gone POP!. The only way we were able to do the port was to take her thongs away. Its one of the hardest decisions I've had to make in my entire life, taking that thong away! I still cry about it every night. Oh, and the next person to ask me about the cap is gonna get it!"

Deadly Alliance

While on an assignment in the East, Sonya received a distressing message from Jax that the OIA had been destroyed by an accomplice of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. A new threat from Outworld was imminent. She was visited by the God of Thunder, Raiden, who asked for her aid against the Deadly Alliance and instructed her to meet with the other heroes on Shang Tsung's abandoned island. There, Sonya developed a small rivalry with Frost. To earn the right to pass into Outworld, each warrior had to defeat a representation of his or her adversary; to her surprise, it was a stranger with an image of a red dragon on his back. Sonya was unable to find the two missing OIA agents, Cyrax and Kenshi and was killed along with Jax and Cage in battle with the Deadly Alliance's Tarkatan forces. The Deadly Alliance's victory was short-lived, as Onaga reclaimed Outworld, as well as the amulet. With his ability to raise the dead at will, he resurrected and enslaved Sonya and her fallen comrades. (As Sonya and her comrades appear normal in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, it is likely that Ermac and the spirit of Liu Kang had freed them from Onaga's control.)

Armageddon

Sonya returns to Earth after Onaga's defeat, with the intention of continuing her assault on both the Red and Black Dragon clans, only to be forced to focus on the newly-established threat. In her absence, the Tekunin had grown large enough to disrupt Earth civilization and had violated Earthrealm law by engaging in illegal inter-realm alliances with unknown parties, a combination which forces Sonya to divert all the resources of the Special Forces against them. Sonya seems to get an unexpected break when succeeds in downing the Tekunin's flagship, helmed by their Grandmaster Sektor himself, after he refused to surrender. Thanks to Sonya’s attack, Taven manages to escape capture. She then sends a team led by her partner Jax in to hunt for survivors, but they mysteriously vanish. His cybernetic bio scanners send out anomalous readings before contact is lost and Sonya fears the possibility of Jax's death. She tracks the signal of a homing beacon placed on Taven by Sektor before his escape and eventually confronts him in Arktika, trying to get information out of him. She limps away after she is beaten, warning him that she'll be watching him.

In her Armageddon ending Sonya defeats Blaze, who offers her any power she desires. When Kano arrives at the scene, Sonya is glowing with energy and glares at him. Her gaze burns Kano alive and makes him explode in a cloud of ash. With this new power, Sonya incinerates all of the Black Dragon and Red Dragon clan members, clearing the way for a new era of peace.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

In this uncanonical crossover game, Sonya appears as one of the warriors representing the Mortal Kombat Universe. In the story mode, Sonya is investigating the dimensional imbalance. After defeating Catwoman, Baraka and Captain Marvel and Green Lantern, Sonya and Jax return to their base to use their own teleportation machine to try to get to the other dimension. Sonya and Jax teleport to an orbital space station where they free the captive Sub-Zero and take him back to Earthrealm. When she finds Jax unconscious at the hands of Green Lantern, Sonya once again challenged him but was defeated, and while they've been imprisoned, both Jax and Sonya manage to escape back to Earthrealm. There, Earthrealm's heroes and Outworld's villains join forces against the invaders from the other universe. Sonya reluctantly teams up with Kano to track a foreign energy signal, and they confronted and defeated by the Joker and Deathstroke. When both sides finally decide to meet for one last battle, Sonya once again fights Catwoman. In the end, Sonya is knocked unconscious while Raiden and Superman proceed to fight Dark Kahn. After Dark Kahn’s defeat and the separation of the universes, Sonya stands alongside her allies and enemies to see a powerless Darkseid left behind in Shao Kahn’s palace. In Sonya's ending, she comes in possession of a Power Ring from an unnamed Green Lantern slain during the merger of the dimensions. After the two dimensions separate, Sonya is still in possession of the ring, but she is forced to use it sparingly until she can find a way to charge it. Stuck in the Mortal Kombat games at the mercy of the sadistic Ed Boon, Sonya devises an ingenious ploy to escape his clutches and return to the real world. She convinces Boon to create Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, a project that would require merging the real world with her prison. The great soceror Ed, idiot that he was, agreed and Sonya managed to escape. It was only through the efforts of the loyal Mortal Kombat fan base that Sonya Blade was found and squeezed back into a Mortal Kombat game cartridge.

In other Mortal Kombat media

Comics and novel

Sonya was one of the main characters in Malibu's Mortal Kombat comic book adaptations. She first appeared in the Blood & Thunder miniseries in hot pursuit of Kano alongside her partner, who was later killed by Kano in one of only two organized fights that commenced in the entire series; she succeeded in capturing Kano at the conclusion of Blood & Thunder, but he was later freed by his Black Dragon cohorts. In the second series, Battlewave, Sonya investigated a brutal attack on Jax. Convinced that only someone from Outworld could inflict such injury, she ventured into Shang Tsung's island only to be ambushed and captured by Kintaro; she was brainwashed by Reptile into marrying Kahn, but the Earth warriors intervened during the ceremony and Sonya was able to break free from the trance by herself. The comics suggested a love interest between Sonya and Johnny Cage and a recurring rivalry against Mileena.

In Jeff Rovin's 1995 non-canon Mortal Kombat novel, Sonya traveled along with Kano and the rest of the Black Dragon, disguised as a criminal named Gilda Stahl. Her mission was to ensure that the Black Dragon didn't kill anyone, although she had a personal interest in getting Kano, as he had murdered her fiancee. Her cover was eventually blown by Shang Tsung.

Films

Sonya was a primary character in both Mortal Kombat films. She was supposed to be portrayed by Cameron Diaz but the Charlie's Angel got a pretty sorry whopping when she ventured too close to a TV screen exhibiting Sonya. Bridgette Wilson was cast in the first movie and for her own safety, was made to promise never ever ever to tell anyone what she'd just done. During production, Wilson was given the nickname "RoboBabe" by director Paul Anderson, again, to protect her real identity from an extremely vicious and vindictive Sonya Blade. Sonya's personality and storyline are faithful to the games in keeping with her vendetta against Kano for murdering her partner. During the tournament, she fights Kano and ultimately kills him. Since this never really happened, it enraged the real Sonya even further and she has now added Paul Anderson to her hitlist. Later in the film, she is captured by Shang Tsung and taken to the Emperor's castle in the wastelands of Outworld where she is challenged by Shang Tsung to final combat. The arrivals of Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, and Kitana prevent this, and Sonya is subsequently freed from her chains by Cage, to whom she is attracted (Sonya Blade: "WHAAAAAAATTTTT!!!!!???????") and he to her. Taking Sonya's place, Liu Kang goes on to defeat Shang Tsung and win the tournament. (In the novelization of the first movie, there was an additional scene in the beginning showing Sonya discovering the mutilated body of her partner, Lieutenant Bill van Hoven, who was killed by Kano.)

Sandra Hess took over the role of Sonya in the sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation because, (a) Bridgette Wilson had been discovered and leg-grabbed into a hundred thousand pieces by the real Sonya and (b) Sandra Hess was suicidal. Sonya is devastated by the death of Johnny Cage, who was killed by Shao Kahn after saving her life, and struggles to cope with her grief by fighting, killing and saving the world. After rescuing her old partner Jax from an extermination squad led by Cyrax on Shao Kahn's orders, she reunites with Liu Kang and Kitana in hopes of stopping Kahn from bringing the Earth to ruin. However, the real Sonya appears within the film and rips out all of Sandra's hair, sending the actress into hiding.

Animation

Sonya was one of the main protagonists in the animated film Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins.

She was also a lead character in the animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, and was voiced by Olivia d'Abo. Her vendetta against Kano was explained, and was explored further in two separate episodes. Kano was shown to have killed her partner, named Wexler.

Other media

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Jeri Ryan played the role of Sonya Blade of the Deacon City Police Department in a short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, a reboot pitch for Warner Bros, and reprised her in Mortal Kombat: Legacy.

Design

There were originally no plans for Sonya's inclusion in Mortal Kombat, which was supposed to feature only six characters, and she was added only when the president of Williams gave the development team an additional six weeks (adding to its already ten months of production) and told them to polish the game. At first, the additional character was actually Jax; when the developers decided they need a female character, Sonya was created and his story was applied to her. She was named after one of Ed Boon's sisters is one of Ed Boon's sisters, as confirmed in Tanya's biography card in the special edition of Deception.

However, according to John Tobias, Sonya and Kano were the least popular characters of the first game and they decided to replace them, saving image space and time for the new characters. The two were promptly dropped for the sequel and appear in MKII only in one of the backgrounds, chained in Kahn's Arena (producers also said Sonya was "chucked out" from the game in favour of Kitana and Mileena as part of revamping the game, so it would better compete against Street Fighter II). Mortal Kombat: Special Forces was to have both Jax and Sonya as playable characters; however, Sonya's part was dropped again due to deadline issues exacerbated by Tobias's sudden departure from the company.

Sonya was the only one of the seven original playable characters from the original game whose character design changed throughout the series. In the first game, she wore green tights with a black swimsuit thong worn over it, short hair, and a headband. This sprite was kept for her cameo appearance in Mortal Kombat II. In Mortal Kombat 3, her green spandex outfit was touched up with black and white stripes, and she wore white sneakers, and was given long hair tied back in a ponytail. Since Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, her lingerie could be seen outside, and in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, she had a navel piercing. In Mortal Kombat 4, her most notable feature was a black cap, and she began to wear boots, rather than just sneakers. In Deadly Alliance, she was given a military-style outfit with a jacket, a tight torn shirt, tights, and black boots; she kept this appearance for Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. In Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, she wares a small white shirt with shoulder holsters, black pants with belt, boots, long black gloves and a black beret.

Gameplay

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According to Nintendo Power, Sonya could be a "Juggling demon" in Mortal Kombat Trilogy when in hands of an experienced player.

Promotion and reception

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In April 2011, a model cosplaying as Kitana, along with those dressed as Mileena and Kitana , was featured in her a live-action trailer "Sonya Blade Kasting" and an official photo session; they also attended The Gadget Show.

In 2008, GamesRadar chose Sonya as one the iconic video game babes of the early 90s era. GameDaily had her featured in the series "The Next Wave of Video Game Babes" in 2008 and showcased her as one of the hottest blondes in the video game world in 2009. In 2010, UGO rated her fight with Kano in the first film as the #19 best cinematic fist fight scene. She also shared #8 with Kitana and Mileena on the list of "The 50 Hottest Women In Video Games" by Complex.

External links

• Sonya Blade - The Mortal Kombat Wiki
• IGN: Sonya Blade
• Sonya Blade at the Internet Movie Database