Cassie Cage

Cassie Cage is a fictional character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. She made her debut in 2015's Mortal Kombat X as the headstrong daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade. In her role as a sergeant in the United States Special Forces, she leads a new generation of combatants in the ongoing fight to protect Earthrealm from Shinnok and his forces.

In addition to featuring as the protagonist in the game's story mode, Cassie has a recurring role in DC Comics' 2015 prequel comic series. Critical reception to the character has been mainly positive, for factors such as her personality, gender representation, and her Fatality finishing moves.

In video games
Twenty-five years after the defeat of Shao Kahn at the end of the 2011 series reboot, Johnny Cage and wife Sonya Blade see the birth of their daughter, Cassandra Carlton Cage—"Cassie" for short—but they later divorce. Following in her mother's footsteps, Cassie joins the Special Forces, which with their military training and technology, protect Earthrealm from its enemies. Under Raiden's orders, Cassie leads a task force assembled by her father and composed of a new generation of combatants in Jacqui Briggs, Takeda, and Kung Jin. Meanwhile, Sonya does not give Cassie preferential treatment and treats her similarly to any subordinate personnel. The team go through growing pains as they attempt to launch a sneak attack on Sub-Zero's Lin Kuei temple but are defeated; the attack is then revealed as a training exercise set up by Johnny Cage, with Sub-Zero informing Cassie and her unit that they will fail if they cannot work together as a team. Sonya sends them to Outworld on a search for Mileena, who possesses Shinnok's amulet. Cassie encounters the realm's new ruler Kotal Kahn, who grudgingly joins forces with her unit to locate the amulet. Later in the story, the team recovers the amulet, but Kahn has them captured, as he is distrusting of them and intends to use them to lure Raiden to Earthrealm. When the unit return to Earthrealm, her father is missing; a wounded Sonya informs Cassie that he was abducted by Shinnok and taken to Raiden's Sky Temple, where Shinnok has corrupted the source of Earthrealm's life force, the Jinsei. Johnny is held captive in the meantime by D'Vorah while she tortures him with her flesh-eating parasites. With Kung Jin knocked out as he and Cassie attempt to defeat D'Vorah, and with Jacqui and Takeda having been wounded and incapacitated by Kitana earlier, Cassie is the remaining member of her squad left to face Shinnok, during which she discovers she has inherited Johnny's ancient power, which increases her strength and enables her to defeat Shinnok and free Raiden, enabling him to restore the Jinsei. At the conclusion, Sonya, Johnny and Cassie happily reunite. In her noncanonical arcade ending, she is assigned to hunt down a "soul stealer," believed to be the resurrected Shang Tsung; she tracks down the individual—an elderly man—and beats him to near-death, after which he identifies himself as Shujinko.

Design
In Mortal Kombat X, Cassie was voiced by Ashly Burch, and her official biography describes her "as strong-willed–and occasionally hotheaded as her mother; and as quick-witted as her beloved dad." One early sketch by concept artist Justin Murray showed Cassie as a "robotix [sic] engineer" with spiked pink hair and a massive hand-operated mechanical arm. Another concept depicted her as a muscular MMA-style brawler with her pink hair longer in length, and an outfit consisting of a customized leather sports bra and panties, with tall black boots and fighting gloves that featured a personalized logo of her initials framed inside a star. Cassie's design for the game of her short blonde hair, aviator sunglasses, and full Special Forces tactical suit was finalized by artist Marco Nelor, who considered Cassie among his favorite designs.

Kickboxer and mixed martial artist Felice Herrig has claimed that physical and visual similarities between herself and the character are not coincidental. Cassie's in-game mannerisms include blowing bubble gum and taking selfies, the latter for which Herrig is particularly known. Herrig first made mention of possible similarities in a January 2015 post to her Instagram account, and in April 2015, following the release of Mortal Kombat X, she said in an interview with Fox Sports that "Cassie Cage is 100-percent me" and added, "Who doesn't want to be a bad ass in a video game? It's definitely cool and if they would have came to me and said 'hey can we use your image and your likeness in a video game as Cassie Cage?' I would be more excited."

Gameplay
Cassie's fighting style is similar to that of her parents, being able to fight with her hands in close combat, as well as with her pistols from long range. In addition, Cassie is noted for adopting her father's attitude, and her mother combat styles. She is playable in the game's twelfth and final chapter, in which she fights Sindel, Kitana, and D'Vorah, before battling and defeating Corrupted Shinnok. Like the game's other selectable characters, Cassie's special moves and attacks are split into three gameplay variations, hers being "Hollywood", "Spec Ops", and "Brawler". The "Hollywood" variation has Cassie taking after Johnny Cage, wearing sunglasses during battle and adopting his groin-punch move, in addition to using her handguns both on the ground and in midair. "Spec Ops" features a military-style offensive similar to that of Sonya, featuring attacks such as air strikes with missiles and lasers, which she calls in through an earpiece. For "Brawler", Cassie performs takedowns and tackles, as well as midair tosses. Her "Testi-Kill" X-ray move has her assaulting her opponent's groin area, which, when performed on male characters, ruptures their testicles entirely.

Cassie's "Bubble Head" Fatality has her shooting her opponents in both legs to incapacitate them, then once in the forehead; she then removes her gum from her mouth and sticks it onto the wound, causing the gum to expand as it fills with the victim's blood before they fall dead. For "Selfie", she knocks off her opponent's lower jaw with her nightstick, then proceeds to take a selfie image with their corpse, which she then uploads to a fictitious social media site.

In other media
Cassie is a supporting character in DC Comics' Mortal Kombat X weekly prequel miniseries that is set before the in-game storyline, and her role is similar to that in the game in that she aspires to establish her own identity as she follows in the footsteps of her parents. She debuts in a two-parter over the fourth and fifth chapters, first seen training with Jacqui, during which her strained relationship with Sonya is revealed. Cassie and Jacqui then sneak into an underground mixed martial arts arena, where Cassie is suddenly forced to fight Frost in a death match, which Cassie wins and the Black Dragon crashes before she can kill Frost. She and Jacqui take Frost to safety before they flee the arena, during which Cassie snaps selfies to leave a traceable trail for the Special Forces. In the ninth chapter, Cassie and Jacqui are captives of Kano and the Black Dragon but are intercepted by Mavado and the rival Red Dragon clan in an Outworld jungle, and both factions fight each other over custody of Cassie and Jacqui before Erron Black frees them. Mavado attacks Black and then attempts to kill Cassie and Jacqui, but they overpower him and Cassie kills him with his hookswords. Cassie is then absent from the series until chapter eighteen, where she is imprisoned in a dungeon on Shang Tsung's island and is described by Havik as "the heir to an ancient warrior power", in reference to her father Johnny Cage's lineage. After Cassie is forced to watch Skarlet assault Jacqui, Havik informs her that he is capable of acquiring this power when Cage's loved ones are near death. Back in her cell, Cassie is attacked by Jacqui, who is under the influence of Havik's "Blood Code" curse, and then Skarlet, working with Havik, stabs Cassie in the chest with a Kamidogu dagger, inflicting the curse on her as well. When Sonya and Cage enter Shang Tsung's island to confront Reiko and the Red Dragon, they are presented with the newly-brainwashed Jacqui and Cassie, who seeks to kill her own parents to prove her loyalty to Reiko.

Reception
The character has been met with mainly positive reception. Den of Geek ranked Cassie eleventh in their 2015 rating of the series' 73 characters, describing her as "a new main hero character who is actually likable" and "everything you’d want out of a good female protagonist and it’s wonderful that NetherRealm [Studios] was able to hit the potential on such a fun character design." Lucas Sullivan of GamesRadar praised the game's "depictions of strong women, particularly Sonya Blade, Cassie Cage, and Jacqui Briggs" as "some of the most grounded, believable, and most importantly relatable portrayals I've seen." Greg Knoll of Realm of Gaming raved about the character in his review of the game. "She is, without question, the new face of Mortal Kombat. She has her mother's incredible fighting ability (not to mention looks) and her father's egotistical, snarky charm. Her fatalities are the most entertaining, her voiceover work is phenomenal and ... there's just something really captivating about her." However, Ikhtear Shahrukh of The Daily Star commented, "Some of the newbies like Takeda and Kung Jin are a blast to play with interesting variations and sick looking combos. Others like Jacqueline Briggs and Cassie Cage…not so much; as they fit into typical generic fighter game character stereotypes instead of being Mortal Kombat material." Eurogamer described Cassie and her companions as a "quartet of daddy issue-riddled newbies", and said, "Takahashi Takeda [is] angry with his father [ Kenshi ] for abandoning him to a ninja clan led by Scorpion. ... Takahashi's got a point. The others just need to get over themselves."

Cassie's "Selfie" Fatality has been met with critical praise. Steven Schneider of Tech Times wrote, "It's not the most subtle nod to our selfie-obsessed culture, but it fits in perfectly with both Cassie's character and the series' comedy as a whole." Tristan Cooper of Dorkly called the finisher "perfect", and Polygon commented, "We've become accustomed to Mortal Kombat's brand of gruesome humor over the past 20-plus years but even I had to wince at this one." Kotaku's Patricia Hernandez stated, "Yes, it's not the most brutal fatality in the game. But it is the most memorable and culturally relevant one." In their listing of the game's top 10 fatalities, CraveOnline ranked it at #2. Den of Geek commented, "Usually something like that would come off as too corny and forced, but they go so over-the-top with it, to the point of showing a Facebook knockoff page with scrolling comments from other kombatants, that it’s one of the true highlights of the new game."