HBO's The Last of Us inputs for Mileena's Mortal Kombat 2 Fatality were actually correct after all
Update: It turns out that there is actually an alternate way to perform Mileena's "Man Eater" Fatality that involves multiple button presses. As such, what was depicted in HBO's The Last of Us was actually correct. I myself didn't know this since I always performed the Fatality back in the day by simply holding the HK button. MickyWinz has submitted a clip that showcases this phenomenon.
Last month, an episode of HBO's "The Last of Us" featured a cameo of Mortal Kombat 2. Ellie and Joel stumbled upon an old Mortal Kombat 2 cabinet, but Ellie was unable to play it. Instead, she reminisced about how there's a character named "Mileena" in the game who has access to a Fatality where she eats the opponent before spitting out their bones.
In the latest episode of The Last of Us, we got to see the backstory of how Ellie received her bite. During the backstory episode, Ellie and her friend, Riley Abel, found a working Mortal Kombat 2 arcade cabinet. Needless to say, this also gives us the origin on how Ellie gained knowledge about Mileena in Mortal Kombat 2.
In the first match between Ellie and Riley, Ellie chose Raiden while Riley picked Mileena. Being that this was Ellie's first time playing, she initially didn't know what to do. However, Riley gave her the advice to "smash the buttons" and to "use the joystick more."
Inevitably, Riley's experience allowed her to reign victorious in the first match. As a result, the announcer announced his iconic "Finish Him!" line after Raiden's health bar was depleted. As a result, this presented Riley with an opportunity to show Ellie Mileena's Fatality.
At this point, about four button presses could be heard. Following this, Mileena is seen performing her Fatality where she eats the opponent and then spits out the bones. However, fans familiar with Mortal Kombat 2 should've immediately recognized something strange with this scene.
To perform Mileena's bone spitting Fatality, the player only has to hold the HK button for a few seconds, then release the button while standing at close range. While this was initially believed to be a mistake on the part of the show by the Mortal Kombat community (myself included), it turns out that there is an alternate method for performing Mileena's "Man Eater" Fatality in Mortal Kombat 2.
While at close range, the Mileena player can actually hold the block button and then tap heavy kick two or three times to trigger it without the need to hold the heavy kick button for a few seconds. This is likely what the show was actually referencing with this scene.
More Mortal Kombat 2 on tonight’s episode of The Last Of Us on @hbomax 🐉🩸@noobde pic.twitter.com/JPmFTieOYE
— 🐉Mortal_Kombat_Addict | Fatalities Daily (@MK_habit_addict) February 27, 2023
A clip submitted by MickyWinz proves how this is actually possible in Mortal Kombat 2. Before performing the Fatality, he explains what he intends to do. Following this, multiple button presses can be heard, just like in the show.
In the second match, Ellie ends up playing Baraka against Riley's Mileena. This time, Ellie was able to secure the win against the more experienced Riley.
Ellie ends up asking Riley on how to perform a Fatality with Baraka. We actually get to hear the inputs this time, and they also appear to be correct. As such, Ellie was successful at performing a Fatality within Mortal Kombat 2 on her first attempt.
