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Description
"I only trust one person on this planet, Jax...You're talking to her."

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Biography:

Lieutenant Sonya Blade is a member of a top United States Special Forces unit, where she serves under the command of Major Jackson "Jax" Briggs. Her father Herman was also a major in the U.S. Army, and probably the inspiration for her decision to pursue a military career. Sonya is a headstrong, stubborn woman, often slow to trust, open up to, and rely on others. She had a twin brother named Daniel who died when she was younger, and may have had a partner who was murdered by her archrival, Kano. These losses could perhaps explain her self-reliant loner attitude.

At the time of the Mortal Kombat tournament, Lt. Blade led a team of Special Forces agents in pursuit of Kano, leader of the Black Dragon crime syndicate. Watching as Kano boarded Shang Tsung's sailbarge, they followed him to the island where the tournament was being held.

Upon arriving, they were ambushed and taken hostage by Tsung's personal guards. Tsung forces Sonya to enter into his twisted competition, where victory will mean freedom for her and her men. If she loses, however, Tsung will have her team executed.

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Artist Commentary:

Sonya isn't ordinarily a character I'm fond of, but I enjoyed drawing this piece, likely because of the challenge it presented. In the original MK1 game, Lt. Blade's attire is a horrid green spandex number with black underwear on the outside of her pants. I decided to take a cue from her Shaolin Monks look instead, and give her camoflage pants. I tinted them green to match her turtleneck tanktop, which is based on her look in MK: Special Forces and MK3. The logo on her chest comes from the MK1 comic book.

The thong sticking out of her pants, which appears in both Deadly Alliance and Shaolin Monks, is...not a popular detail among her fans, I'm told, but I chose to include it as sort of a reference to the aforementioned underwear-on-the-outside. The belted gauntlets come from her original look, while the gloves are, again, a Shaolin Monks detail.

And she always seems to be wearing that black headband.

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Trivia:

During pre-production of MK1, Sonya's storyline originally belonged to an African-American character named Kurtis Stryker. He was scrapped, however, in favor of including a female character in the game. Stryker's appearance would later become Jax in MK2, and his name would go to another character in MK3.

Sonya is named after series co-creator Ed Boon's sister. Like nearly all the characters in the game, the inspiration for her character came from kung fu films. In this case, karate champion and actress Cynthia Rothrock.

The partner murdered by Kano has never actually been mentioned in the games. It was invented both by the film and a novel. At this time, however, there has been no evidence to deny it's status in-continuity either, so most fans accept it as canon.

Description
"I only trust one person on this planet, Jax...You're talking to her."

---
Biography:

Lieutenant Sonya Blade is a member of a top United States Special Forces unit, where she serves under the command of Major Jackson "Jax" Briggs. Her father Herman was also a major in the U.S. Army, and probably the inspiration for her decision to pursue a military career. Sonya is a headstrong, stubborn woman, often slow to trust, open up to, and rely on others. She had a twin brother named Daniel who died when she was younger, and may have had a partner who was murdered by her archrival, Kano. These losses could perhaps explain her self-reliant loner attitude.

At the time of the Mortal Kombat tournament, Lt. Blade led a team of Special Forces agents in pursuit of Kano, leader of the Black Dragon crime syndicate. Watching as Kano boarded Shang Tsung's sailbarge, they followed him to the island where the tournament was being held.

Upon arriving, they were ambushed and taken hostage by Tsung's personal guards. Tsung forces Sonya to enter into his twisted competition, where victory will mean freedom for her and her men. If she loses, however, Tsung will have her team executed.

---
Artist Commentary:

Sonya isn't ordinarily a character I'm fond of, but I enjoyed drawing this piece, likely because of the challenge it presented. In the original MK1 game, Lt. Blade's attire is a horrid green spandex number with black underwear on the outside of her pants. I decided to take a cue from her Shaolin Monks look instead, and give her camoflage pants. I tinted them green to match her turtleneck tanktop, which is based on her look in MK: Special Forces and MK3. The logo on her chest comes from the MK1 comic book.

The thong sticking out of her pants, which appears in both Deadly Alliance and Shaolin Monks, is...not a popular detail among her fans, I'm told, but I chose to include it as sort of a reference to the aforementioned underwear-on-the-outside. The belted gauntlets come from her original look, while the gloves are, again, a Shaolin Monks detail.

And she always seems to be wearing that black headband.

---
Trivia:

During pre-production of MK1, Sonya's storyline originally belonged to an African-American character named Kurtis Stryker. He was scrapped, however, in favor of including a female character in the game. Stryker's appearance would later become Jax in MK2, and his name would go to another character in MK3.

Sonya is named after series co-creator Ed Boon's sister. Like nearly all the characters in the game, the inspiration for her character came from kung fu films. In this case, karate champion and actress Cynthia Rothrock.

The partner murdered by Kano has never actually been mentioned in the games. It was invented both by the film and a novel. At this time, however, there has been no evidence to deny it's status in-continuity either, so most fans accept it as canon.