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Reptile is a character in the Mortal Kombatfighting game series.
Reptile embodies the archetype of the unhappy underling. Reptile is said to be physically hideous and repulsive, he is renowned for his great stealth and unquestioning loyalty. Unlike many other henchmen of the lords he has served, Reptile does not strive for power. Rather, he is caught in a delusional state of mind, an obsession about finding the last remaining member of his race, the Saurians, or freeing his homeworld from Outworld's grasp. This obsession is so important to him that it causes temporary fits of insanity.
It is not quite clear how old Reptile is. Estimates run in the tens of thousands of years, or even millions. What is known, however, is that his homeworld, Zaterra after being banished from Earthrealm by Raiden, was at one point invaded and annexed by Outworld's emperor, Shao Kahn. As was the usual process for Kahn conquering another world, most of the Zaterrans were killed in the ensuing battles, only leaving a handful of people left. Among those, or among those descended from these survivors, was Reptile. Unlike the others of his kind, who were forced into slavery, Reptile was trained to be a servant of both Kahn and Shang Tsung.
Storyline
In the events between the death of the Great Kung Lao and Liu Kang's victory in the first Mortal Kombat game, Reptile joined Shang Tsung and Goro on Earthrealm. He stayed in hiding during the first Mortal Kombat. Naturally, when Tsung returned to Outworld, so did Reptile. He protected his master from harm during the events of Mortal Kombat II, and then went on to receive special missions from Shao Kahn himself, who had promised to release the remaining members of his race from slavery if he would unquestioningly do his bidding. Such an opportunity arose when Kitana had escaped into the unknown regions of Earthrealm during Kahn's invasion of that world. Reptile was sent with Jade to find and, if necessary, kill Kitana. He did not succeed as Jade betrayed him to help her friend Kitana.
After the war was over, with Kahn defeated and both Earth and Edenia free, Reptile was brought back as a prisoner to Edenia, and tried there for genocide, a bitter irony since his own race once was the victim of the very same act. Reptile was then exiled to the Netherealm.
When the fallen Elder GodShinnokinvaded Edenia, Reptile grasped the opportunity to join Shinnok's Army of Darkness as a commander, hoping to convince Shinnok to revive his near extinct race. After being on the losing side once more, he escaped into Outworld again and rejoined his old masters, in spite of the fact that neither had ever kept their promises towards him.
Because of his state of separation from the other members of his race, and especially his matriarch, Reptile had begun to show signs of devolution. Where he used to mask his appearance by posing as a human, this proved to be no longer possible. By the events of , Reptile had nearly gone insane and had a significantly changed appearance, including a tail.
With the armies of Edenia and Outworld locked in combat, Reptile left the battlefield to report directly to Shao Kahn. He was distracted, however, by the vampire Nitara, who revealed to him knowledge of his lost civilization. She gave him the Kirehashi blade, which was an artifact of the Zaterran civilization, as proof.
When Kahn was apparently killed in a surprise attack by the Deadly Alliance, the desperate and purposeless Reptile quickly found a new mistress in the form of Nitara. Unknown to Reptile, he had always been merely a pawn in Nitara's plan to free her people's realm from the Outworld. The first step had been to distract Reptile long enough for the Deadly Alliance to kill Shao Kahn unhindered; next, she manipulated Reptile and the cyber-ninja Cyrax into battle. Reptile damaged Cyrax, ensuring the cyber-ninja would later help Nitara in her quest for the portal sphere. Eventually, Reptile came to realize that Nitara had fooled him, and that her plan had lead to the death of his master Shao Kahn. Enraged, Reptile tracked the vampire and Cyrax to the Lava Chamber, but he was too late. The portal sphere had been destroyed, and of Nitara and Cyrax there was no sign. All that remained was the almost fully incubated dragon egg of Onaga the Dragon King. The egg hatched, a beam of light struck Reptile and Reptile's body became the vessel for the reincarnated Onaga.
Possible future
Both Reptile and Onaga will appear in the upcoming , seeming to indicate Reptile's body was freed from the Dragon King, who will now reappear as a separate entity. In Sindel's MK:D ending this is exactly what occurs; she sends Onaga back to his mummified, original body, and pierces his heart. Interestingly in the background, Reptile can be seen in his human-style guise, implying this form may return.
In the MK:A cast render however, Reptile appears in his Deadly Alliance guise. Which, if not both, looks are given to Reptile remains to be seen. As a side note, Reptile in the cast render has an eye on his chest, roughly corresponding to where Onaga was stabbed.
Acid Spit: Reptile would remove his mask and spit acid at his opponent. (MKII, UMK3, MKT, MK4, MK Gold, MKDA, MK:SM)
Power Slide: Reptile would use Sub-Zero's slide attack as well. (MK, MKII, UMK3, MKT, MK:SM)
Disappear: Reptile could disappear or reappear in a puff of smoke. In the third game, Reptile could not reappear unless he was hit. (MKII, UMK3, MKT, MK4, MK Gold)
False Disappearing Act: Reptile could also disappear and then quickly reappear all at once. Simply accomplished by tapping the button used to vanish to reappear. This move does not work in the third, or fourth games. (MKII)
False Reappearing Act: Same as the False Disappearing Act, tapping the same button would cause another puff of smoke. This only works in third game. (UMK3, MKT)
Reverse Elbow: Reptile would run behind his opponent and deliver a successful elbow into their face. (UMK3, MKT)
Slow Forceball: Reptile would send an orb that would explode causing his opponent to be knocked towards him. (MKII, UMK3, MKT, MK:SM)
Fast Forceball: Just a faster version of the Slow Forceball. (UMK3, MKT)
Dash Punch: Reptile would slide and punch his opponent. (MK4, MK Gold)
Creepy Crawl: Reptile would crawl under his opponent's feet knocking them over. (MK4, MK Gold)
Reptile Ball: Rolling into a ball, Reptile would spin on the ground towards his opponent. (MKDA)
Fatalities
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He uses Scorpion and Sub-Zero's Fatalities in Mortal Kombat.
Tasty Meal: Reptile takes off his mask, revealing a reptilian face. He then opens his mouth and stretches out his long tongue, sticking it to his victim's head, then quickly retracts it, ripping off the head and eating it. Reptile then rubs his stomach, giving a satisfied "Mmmm..." noise. (MKII)
Invisible Slice: Reptile turns invisible, then rips or cuts off his opponent's torso before reappearing. How this is done is not precisely explained. (MKII)
Body Snacker: Reptile repeats his head-eating fatality, but continues to lance out his tongue and eats the victim's torso and upper legs, distorting his head grotesquely as he swallows them. The lower legs and feet remain. (UMK3)
Upset Stomach: Reptile takes off his mask, then vomits acid over his victim. The body is instantly reduced to a greenish skeleton, which further collapses into a puddle of goo. (UMK3)
Face Snack: Reptile jumps onto his victim, then chews off his/her face. The chewing part is mostly concealed by copious amounts of blood, but when he pulls away (wiping the excess blood from his mouth), the victim's skinless face is clearly shown. (MK4)
Acid Shower: Reptile levitates over his opponent, and then vomits acid in a continuous fountain over the victim, dissolving their skin and much of their flesh. (MK4)
Hybrid: Reptile jumps onto his enemy and vomits acid over their head. He then jumps back, revealing that the enemy has left only a skull lightly covered in acid. He then flicks out his tongue and eats that skull. (MK:DA)
Face Maul: Reptile pounces onto his opponent and viciously claws at their face, clawing off layer after layer of skin until he finally claws the head into bloody chunks. (MK:SM)
Other finishers
Reptile Doll: Reptile asks his opponent to purchase a doll of himself. (MKII)
Jack-in-the-box: Reptile cranks a jack-in-the-box and a huge snake head pops out frightening the opponent away. (UMK3, MKT)
Monkey: Reptile turns into a monkey and chases the opponent off screen. (UMK3, MKT)
Movie appearances
Reptile appeared in Mortal Kombat. In the movie, he was a bipedal lizard humanoid. Initially disguised as a statue, Reptile received orders from Shang Tsung to keep Liu Kang and the other humans away from Kitana. During Liu Kang and Johnny Cage's journey to rescue Sonya from Shang Tsung, Liu Kang encounters the reptilian creature and throws it into another statue of Outworld which consumed Reptile. The statue changes into a human ninja form and, after an extended fight, is defeated by Liu Kang when he performs his trademarked bicycle kick. Kang then kills Reptile as he squirms out of the wrecked statue. The nature of the Reptile's consumption is not explained. Liu Kang's fight against Reptile is one of the most popular fights in the movie.
In , three ninjas dressed similar to Reptile confront the Earth warriors. Due to their similar costumes and powers, these three are supposed to be of the same species as Reptile. Raiden fights and defeats two-thirds of them, the third one noticeably absent.
TV appearances
Reptile appeared several times on . Here, it was explained that all the members of his race call themselves Reptile (at least, in English or whatever it is the characters purport to be speaking). Though never mentioned by the name Zaterra, their homeworld appeared several times. They had humanoid shapes, but could be seen reverting to their reptilian ones as they would turn invisible. They could also spit acid as in the games; in one episode, a friendly character (and possible love interest for the character Taja) was killed by an acid attack in the face.
Trivia
Reptile was hidden in the original Mortal Kombat but could be fought by executing a Fatality after fighting on The Pit stage, assuming a shadow flew over the moon in the background, without taking any damage or pressing the block button in the winning round (this means in most cases that Liu Kang, Scorpion and Sonya cannot fight him at all, although experienced players can in most versions execute Liu Kang and Scorpion's fatalities without using the block button). Reptile is a merge between the Sub-Zero and Scorpion characters. Later, in Mortal Kombat II, Reptile was developed into a full character with his own special moves and would be available from the outset. In the final official release version of Mortal Kombat any fighter could fight Reptile.
Reptile's debut as a playable character in MKII was not a pleasant one. He was considered by gamers and critics to be one of the worst characters in the game due to his weak offensive arsenal and lack of combo opportunities. Reptile was strengthened considerably by Midway in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (he did not appear in the original MK3, due to Midway's "ban" on ninja characters in that game).
Although claimed by most fans to be 'devolving' into a more primal state since Mortal Kombat Trilogy, there is very little evidence to support that this change is anything but superficial. It is described in an unlockable photo of Reptile's home realm Zaterra, that members of his race can lose their humanoid appearance when separated for long periods of time from their monarchal leader; given the fact that this authority figure - like most of his people - were most likely wiped out centuries ago by Shao Kahn, the fact that Reptile did not start to 'devolve' until after he assumed his master killed at the end of Mortal Kombat Trilogy, and his race's natural camouflage ability to look like normal humans, it's more likely that Reptile's 'devolution' was a result of his increasingly maddening state overriding what mental capacity was required to maintain his human guise instead of a physical metamorphosis into a prior state of evolution.
Mortal Kombat co-creators John Tobias and Ed Boon admitted in an interview that the "birth" of Reptile was when they took Sub Zero and Scorpion and fused the two into one and colored him green (yellow + blue = green). They christened this character "Reptile" due to his green color and their reference to lizards. While he wasn't given a lot of character depth at the time, he was worked on more (character wise) and was given the lizard persona that fans known him of today.
It is believed that Reptile was placed in the first Mortal Kombat game as a method to keep the fans interested in the game. By and large, his appearance constitutes the first ever hidden character in a fighting game, making him something of a hallmark that has been copied ever since. [[Citing sources citation needed]]
Before battles with an opponent on the first game, Reptile make his appearance and jump in the middle of the screen in a Sub-Zero win pose. Above his head would be clues on how to find him, such as "Look to la luna ("the moon" in Spanish or Italian)" or "Double flawless is the key". This concept was then copied for Smoke and Jade in Mortal Kombat II.
A previous attempt for the game writers to expand on Reptile's Saurian origins brought the creation of the character Khameleon in Mortal Kombat Trilogy. She was said to be the other last remnant of Reptile's race. Her only similarity to Reptile was that she was a palette swapped ninja, although she was female. In the PlayStation and Saturn versions of the game, a similar character exists, though he is male and his name is spelled "Chameleon". This character has only been said to be one of Shao Kahn's greatest warriors. Neither of the characters has been seen since.
Reptile has some connection to Mileena, according to Kitana in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks.
Reptile's appearance in the first Mortal Kombat movie was highlight for many fans, who up until that point didn't think Reptile was going to be featured in ninja form. As an added nod to fans of the games, Shao Kahn's voice announces Reptile as if selected in the game after the statue that consumes him and takes his classic form.
For an unknown reason, numerous Mortal Kombat fan Comics and animations depict Reptile as a joker who constantly makes awful puns.
