Li Mei's Kit: A Meta Analysis

Li Mei's Kit: A Meta Analysis

I haven't been able to play the beta, but I find Li Mei's very VERY Chinese traits interesting. They leaned hard into them, and I wanted to take a moment to go all meta-geek about her fu lions and her fireworks.

Sometimes called "foo dogs", they're stylized lions and are used as guardian symbols all over China. MK has used them with great abandon throughout; they're pretty stereotypical. Traditionally, guardian lions are paired: one has a paw holding a ball, the other has a paw holding a lion cub. The one with the ball is male, the ball representing the world and the material; the one with the cub is female, representing nurturing/care and the spiritual. The female lion protects those inside, while the male protects the structure itself, and you can keep going down into layers here. Turtles on turtles, or lions on lions, as it were.

What's interesting to me is the guardian-protector angle of them and the choice of that for Li Mei. As an Umgadi, she would have been dedicated to protecting the royal family; the idea of being able to summon a spiritual guardian lion to protect her charges is a great note. When she fails in her service and leaves and becomes Constable of Sun Do, she absolutely does not leave behind her protectiveness, but in fact extends it to the capital at large. She's not just protecting Sindel and Kitana and Mileena now, it's everybody.

(and the best screencap I could find was a fu lion against Kitana, which amuses me on some level). The firecrackers are another spirit protection aspect, and I hadn't known about this moving to China. The folklore is that there was a monster who lived in the mountains that would come down to a village, terrorize it, and then leave. One year an old man shows up and spends a few days protecting the village; eventually he says "I can't do this anymore, I have places to go and things to do, but I'll help you protect yourselves". He teaches the community what to do: namely, Nian hates the color red, as well as loud noises like drums and music and… you guessed it, fireworks. Not only do they make for some pretty sweet particle effects, but they lean into that idea of protection again, a little subtle reinforcement that this is part of who Li Mei is. She's a guardian, and with her bright lights and loud noises, she's going to keep the bad things away. The last "big" element in Li Mei's kit that's new is her Sky Lantern. From a gaming POV it's a great anti-air move, and it actually leans into the historical side of things: they were used in China initially for military purposes, and then took on a non-military angle. Li Mei's kit leans into the military side of things, so these aren't unexpected.

But the sky lanterns do have a significance today that is less about the military, and more about family and reunions. Much like the fu dogs also have nuture/care and family tied into them, so do the lanterns - which means Li Mei has a whole boatload of "I will protect and care for everyone as my family". Especially since she was taken from hers and became a warrior-priestess. Despite - or in spite of - everything that's happened, Li Mei is going to continue to protect her family... which at this point is all of Sun Do. And just maybe all of Outworld, but only time will tell.