# Sindel

Sindel is a fictional character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise by Midway Games and NetherRealm Studios. Debuting in Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), she is queen of the fictional realm of Edenia, and the mother of Kitana and former wife of Shao Kahn. She possesses the ability to create sonic screams, levitate, and use her hair as a weapon.
In the series' original story line, Sindel is forced into marriage with Outworld emperor Shao Kahn after he conquers her realm. Brainwashed into helping Shao Kahn invade Earthrealm, she turns against him with the aid of her daughter Kitana. The rebooted timeline, however, depicts Sindel as the loyal queen and lover of Shao Kahn. Outside of the games, Sindel has appeared in various related media, including the 1997 film Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Reception to the character has been generally positive for her appearance and special moves, although her retcon into a villainous role in Mortal Kombat 11 drew criticism.

## Appearances
### Mortal Kombat games

Queen Sindel rules the otherworldly realm of Edenia alongside her daughter, Princess Kitana. Her story line begins 10,000 years prior, when her kingdom loses ten consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments and is invaded by the evil Outworld emperor Shao Kahn, resulting in a forceful merging of the two realms. Sindel was forced to witness her people's enslavement, her husband King Jerrod murdered, and their then-infant daughter Kitana adopted by the Kahn and raised as his own. This proves too much for her, and she commits suicide rather than become Shao Kahn's consort. However, during the events of Mortal Kombat 3, Shao Kahn resurrects her with the assistance of the sorcerer Shang Tsung in Earthrealm, which would allow the Kahn to invade Earthrealm without victory in Mortal Kombat while regaining his queen in the process. Sindel is successfully revived but in a brainwashed state with no knowledge of her past so she would be completely loyal to Shao Kahn. He was only able to garner a partial merger of the realms following her revival however, before Raiden's chosen Earthrealm defenders defeated him. Additionally, Kitana—realizing that her mother was alive—succeeded in procuring an audience with her and convinced her of her true past, turning Sindel against the emperor. Because Shao Kahn's defeat also allows Edenia to regain its independence from Outworld, Sindel regains her rightful place on the throne and vows not only to rebuild their home but also to bring down Shao Kahn for his crimes.
However, one of Sindel's subjects, Tanya, betrayed her homeland and allowed the fallen Elder God Shinnok's Netherrealm forces to invade her palace. Though Kitana escaped, Sindel was captured and imprisoned in her own dungeon until Shinnok's forces were defeated. Enraged at this latest invasion of her kingdom, Sindel sends Kitana to form an alliance with the Shokan armies and lead them into battle against a weakened Shao Kahn while she continues to help restore Edenia to its former beauty. However, Edenia was once again invaded, this time by the Dragon King, Onaga, who had killed and resurrected Kitana and her Earthrealm allies before placing them under his control. Sindel was once again confined to her own prisons, guarded by her own daughter until she was freed by Jade, allowing her to scour Edenia for more information on Onaga so she could free Kitana from his control. In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Sindel's non-canonical ending sees her defeating Blaze and obtaining godlike powers. With these newfound abilities, she resurrected her husband King Jerrod. Together with Kitana, they resolve to work together to ward off tyrants like Shao Kahn and keep the realms safe.
In the rebooted time line of Mortal Kombat (2011), Sindel's story follows that of the original time line, though she is resurrected by Quan Chi instead of Shao Kahn. After receiving Shang Tsung's powers, she killed most of Earthrealm's warriors, Jade, and Kitana before Nightwolf sacrificed himself to kill her. Following this, Sindel was resurrected by Quan Chi as one of his undead revenants. In Mortal Kombat X, Sindel's revenant returned as a non-playable character, serving as one of Quan Chi and the fallen Elder God Shinnok's enforcers in the Netherrealm. She would take part in several battles on both of their behalves, only to be defeated.
Sindel appears as a DLC character in Mortal Kombat 11, which drastically alters her history. In this timeline, the established story is a lie she told to appease her subjects. When Shao Kahn invades Edenia, she personally murders King Jerrod out of spite for his perceived weakness and willingly becomes Shao Kahn's wife to gain more power. Believing she is distracting Shao Kahn, Quan Chi kills Sindel and makes it appear as if she committed suicide before using her soul to temporarily stop Shao Kahn from invading Earthrealm. In the DLC story expansion, Aftermath, Shang Tsung captured Sindel's revenant and revived her to help him secure Kronika's Crown of Souls. Sindel agrees and helps him while also reconsolidating her power with Shao Kahn before betraying Kitana and Earthrealm's forces. After helping Shang Tsung breach Kronika's keep, however, the sorcerer in turn betrays Sindel and Shao Kahn, absorbing their souls in retaliation for killing him to empower Sindel. Sindel returns in Mortal Kombat 1, where she is portrayed as a good character again.

#### Character design and gameplay

During production of Mortal Kombat 3, Sindel was nicknamed "The Bride" and "Muchacha" by the developers before her official name was determined; John Tobias described her as "probably one of the coolest characters." She was played by actress Lia Montelongo (additionally Sareena in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and the motion capture for Tanya in Mortal Kombat 4, both released in 1997), who was nineteen years old when she auditioned for the role. The process of applying her makeup and heavy wig took three hours, while her costume was red like those of the game's other characters, but digitally tinted purple for the game. Montelongo filmed game footage in a single fourteen-hour session, and in a 2001 interview with fan site Dave's Mortal Kombat, she revealed that after MK3's release, she would visit arcades to watch people play as Sindel. Sindel's "that was fun" quote from her Friendship in MK3 was used in the second film.
Sindel is the first character in the Mortal Kombat series who used the power of levitation as both a move used in combat and as a victory pose. She uses her screams as both stun moves and for some of her Fatalities. In the 2011 reboot, Sindel sported a similar but updated look resembling her MK3 appearance. She had no use of her hair as a weapon in Deception and Armageddon, but it returned in the reboot for both basic attacks and special moves. Prima Games considered Sindel well-balanced with a slight advantage over the game's other characters, while her "vast array of low attacks and multitude of projectiles and juggles bring her to the top of the food chain when it comes to the world of competitive Mortal Kombat."

### Other media

In the 1995 one-shot issue comic book Sister Act, featuring Kitana and Mileena and published by Malibu Comics, Sindel has a minor appearance before Kahn's takeover of Edenia, and her hair therein is black, as opposed to the games' silver. Her fate after the invasion was ignored, with just Jerrod's death at the hands of Kahn and Shang Tsung shown. She had another brief role in a special-edition tie-in comic book that was included with the 1998 PC home release of Mortal Kombat 4, in which Quan Chi cons his way into Edenia by posing as a refugee from an annexed realm, and he offers Sindel a mysterious orb that she accepts, but it opens a portal through which Shinnok and his Netherealm denizens (including Reiko and Scorpion) emerge, and they capture Edenia.
Sindel was featured character in the 1996 theatrical show Mortal Kombat: Live Tour, in which she was played by martial artist and stuntwoman Eileen Weisinger.
In the 1997 film Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Sindel had a supporting role and was portrayed by South African actress Musetta Vander. Her general backstory with Kitana was kept intact, and in subplots exclusive to the film, she is named the new general of Shao Kahn's extermination squads following the death of Rain, plus she works with Jade in luring the Earthrealmers into an ambush in Outworld, a task they fail and for which Jade is put to death. She uses all her MK3 special moves in the film, in separate attempts to defeat Raiden; for her "Hair Whip" maneuver, Vander's wig transformed into computer-generated razor-tipped braids that were rotoscoped onto her head. In the final battle at the film's climax, Sindel is defeated by Kitana, who elects to spare her life. After Kahn's death, Sindel is brought back to life with Kahn's curse over her broken. The film crew could not decide if the good Sindel should use another costume. In the movie novelization by Jerome Preisler, Sindel pledges her Edenian kingdom to Liu Kang as a reward for his defeat of Kahn, but he respectfully refuses.
Although Sindel was never seen nor mentioned by name in the 1998 television series Mortal Kombat: Conquest, her canon biography was acknowledged when Kitana declared that her mother had killed herself following the execution of King Jerrod, rather than be subservient to Kahn.
Sindel's backstory at the time of Kahn's invasion of Edenia was again highlighted in the fourth episode of the 2011 first season of the Mortal Kombat: Legacy web series, at the beginning of a two-parter featuring Kitana and Mileena. She was played by Canadian actress Beatrice King (credited in the show as "Beatrice Ilg"), who had originally auditioned for Mileena before being cast as Sindel. King, who was familiar with the character from her brother having played the Mortal Kombat games, additionally "researched how she came about and her relationship" to King Jerrod. Though King has a background in kickboxing, she had no fight scenes in the episode, but she felt that "it was very important to show this regal quality about" the character, "and that sense of duty."

### Merchandise and promotion

Sindel was one of twenty Mortal Kombat characters featured on 2.5" x 3.5" collectible magnets by Ata-Boy Wholesale in 2011, and Syco Collectibles released a polystone character statuette in 2012.

## Reception

In The Gameological Society's 2012 ranking of video games' top "overbearing mother figures," she placed twelfth. UGO.com ranked Sindel 27th in their 2012 rating of Mortal Kombat characters, and she placed 29th in Den of Geek's 2015 ranking of the series' 73 playable characters, mainly for her slaughter of the Earthrealmers in the MK2011 story mode. Ryan Aston of Topless Robot placed her third on their list of characters "that are goofy even by Mortal Kombat standards," where he comments of her movelist (such as her floating ability), and describes her storyline as "one of tragedy and incoherence."
Her finishing moves have been fairly well received. GamePro included her "Killer Hair" from Mortal Kombat 3 among their top twelve "lamest" Fatalities, and in 2010, Game Informer listed her "Scream" from MK3 as one of the series' best Fatalities, though they described Sindel herself as "campy." Prima Games ranked her "Migraine" Fatality from the 2011 reboot, in which she screams directly into her opponent's ear and causes their head to explode, 20th in their 2014 list of the series' top Fatalities. Complex ranked it as the third best Fatality of all time in 2013, while calling her "the hottest zombie to ever walk the Earth."
However, Sindel has gained infamy for her appearance in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, specifically for her first spoken line of dialogue at the beginning of the film during Shao Kahn's invasion of Earth, when she says, "Too bad you...will die" in response to Kitana's shock at her unexpected resurrection ("Mother...you're alive"). Filmsite.org write Tim Dirks included it in their selection of the worst movie quotes. It was included in io9's ten "greatest unintentionally hilarious lines" from science fiction and fantasy films, and among the "worst line readings of all time" by Funny or Die's Cory Matthews.
In Mortal Kombat 11, her retcon into being an evil character received criticism. Mitchell Slatzman, writing for IGN, expresses disappointment in the retcon, stating "It removes any sort of gray area to her personality and essentially just makes her pure evil, flattening a three-dimensional character into a two-dimensional villain." Michael Fitzgerald from Gaming Respawn was also critical of her MK11 portrayal, arguing "This version of Sindel is just not consistent with any version that we've seen before and really spoils what the whole point of the original character was. It's not even like an effort was made to try and explain Sindel's change in personality either other than just saying, "She was actually evil all this time", which is a thoroughly unsatisfying way of getting there." Despite the criticism, Princess Weekes at The Mary Sue was more positive of it, stating "What's interesting is that Mortal Kombat 11 is doing a bit of retcon in terms of Sindel's backstory...I'm just looking forward to the reunion between Sindel and Kitana, who is now thriving as Queen of Netherrealm. How is she going to react to knowing that her mother played a role in her father's death? Plus, with Shao Kahn resurrected, what is that reunion going to look like?" Due to the backlash, she was written to be a good character again in Mortal Kombat 1, a decision praised by Devon Friend of Game Rant, who stated "Sindel needed something special to recover from her Mortal Kombat 11 iteration, and Mortal Kombat 1's new take on canon proved to be exactly what she needed."
Chris Sanfilippo at The Gamer considers her a "queer icon," reasoning "Consider Cher, Elton John, and RuPaul. All three performers are known for their fantastic synergy of glamour and camp. Sindel nails the queer aesthetic. The matriarch pulls off chic purple bodysuits while dismembering foes with her hair. Glamour? Check. Camp? Check!"