Gender: Male Location: Everything you know is wrong.
Shang Tsung
Like I said, every fighting game boss is unique in their own way. What makes Shang Tsung unique is his ability to morph into any other character. He was also badass in the movie so let's give Mr. Tsung his due.
(please log in to view the image)
Shang's Bio
Age: over 500 years old Nationality: Formerly Chinese, now Outworlder Height: 5'11" Weight: 210 Hair: White as an old man, black or dark brown when younger Eyes: White in most games, brown (or green) in Deadly Alliance and onward Fighting Styles: Snake and Crane Primary Weapon: Chinese Straight Sword Allies: Doesn't have that many. He tends to stab them in the back once he's done with them Enemies: Number One on his list is Liu Kang Occupation: Sorcerer to Outworld Emperor, Shao Kahn Portrayed By: Richard Divizio (MK Mythologies: Subzero); Ho Sung Pak (Mortal Kombat 1); Dr. Phillip Ahn (Mortal Kombat II); John Turk (MK3/Ultimate/Trilogy); Bruce Locke (MK: Conquest); Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (first film) Background
The end boss in Mortal Kombat 1.
Mortal Kombat II
(please log in to view the image)
(please log in to view the image)(please log in to view the image)
Mortal Kombat 3/Ultimate/Trilogy
(please log in to view the image)
Tsung is Shao Kahn's lead sorcerer. He once fell out of favor with his emperor after failing to win the Earth realm in tournament battle. But the ever scheming Shang Tsung is instrumental in Kahn's conquest of Earth. He has now been granted more power than ever.
(please log in to view the image)
When Shao Kahn overtakes the Earth, he needs Shang Tsung to help locate the surviving humans. Granted new powers, Tsung soon discovers his dark emperor's true plan: as soon as the remaining warriors are disposed of, Kahn will take Tsung's own soul. After learning this, Tsung turns on his master. He catches Motaro off guard and then defeats Shao Kahn. But before the Earth can return to
normal, Tsung takes all the souls as his own. He will forever rule the Earth with his own brand of evil.
Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance
(please log in to view the image) (please log in to view the image)
(please log in to view the image)
The Deadly Alliance was successful in reviving the mummified remains of the Dragon King's undefeatable army. Shang Tsung, however, began to realize that his relevance in the partnership had evaporated once his talents for soul transplantation were no longer needed. The balance of power within the Deadly Alliance had seemingly been undone. Fearing betrayal, he secretly instructed Kano to steal Quan Chi's amulet in an attempt to gain control of the army. Since part of the soul-transfer spell included the command to obey 'He who possesses the amulet,' the army would obey only Shang Tsung, and not Quan Chi, once the amulet was in his possession.
(please log in to view the image)
Amulet in hand, Shang Tsung revealed his betrayal to Quan Chi and commanded the army to destroy the sorcerer. Shang Tsung would succeed where others had failed. He would conquer the realms. He would conquer Earth.
Mortal Kombat Armageddon
In an instant, Raiden’s blast destroyed us all! Our souls intertwined, we did battle in the ether. But I was drawn away by a magic more powerful than death. My essence returned to Outworld, where I found myself face to face with Shao Kahn! He was alive! Quan Chi and I had slain him in his fortress—or so we thought. Yet here he stood. At his side was the Shokan prince, Goro! My ghostly visage startled them at first, but Shao Kahn knew what had transpired. Long ago I had pledged my soul to the emperor. That pledge was binding even beyond death. But if he were to die, so too would those who served him. At the time I believed it to be merely another empty vow, yet here I am. My soul has returned from beyond to rejoin Shao Kahn. He had need of me. But I require a host body in which my soul could reside. At the flesh pits, he forged for me a new body. It was weak and grotesque to behold, but it functioned well enough. I craved
mortal souls to heal and fortify my new flesh. I found more than enough at a place all too familiar to me: the village where Li Mei was born. I consumed each peasant’s life force as Shao Kahn and Goro slew them one by one. I was renewed! Shao Kahn then commanded me to aid him in an assault on occupying Edenian forces, in an effort to retake his stronghold. United once more, Shao Kahn, Goro and I laid waste to all who stood in our way! In a flurry of brute strength and magic, we forced our way up to the throne room. The door was
reinforced by some magical spell, but it was no match for our combined might. With a final swing of Shao Kahn’s hammer, the door was breached, and Shao Kahn was Emperor of Outworld once more. Though I am bound to him eternally, an opportunity has arisen that might give me the means to free myself. It seems Quan Chi has also survived death, and he has brought word from Shinnok of a plan to take a mighty power for the Forces of Darkness. If I claim that prize
for myself, I could sever my bond with Shao Kahn! Until that time, I will continue to play my role as his servant and redirect any suspicions he may have of betrayal to others within our new dark alliance. Once I have the power and I am free of Shao Kahn, I will finish him and finally take the throne of Outworld for myself!
Ending
Empowered by the godlike energy he received from Blaze, Shang Tsung found that he could alter the forms of others. Enraged that he was denied the prize, Shao Kahn charged the sorcerer. With a gesture of his hand, Shang Tsung transformed his former master into a centaur slave. Shang Tsung had become the ruler of Outworld at last.
__________________
Chuck Norris learned his trademark move, along with his sense of duty and justice, from Jesus after watching Him roundhouse kick a money changer out of the temple.
Woot! I was wondering how much longer it'd be until a Shang Tsung thread was made. If it had been much longer, I would've made a thread for him myself.
Although his fighting styles (in the latest MK games) may seem strange and what not, that doesn't change what he was from the beginning, and needless to say, they're very good if used correctly (example: You can do more damage to opponents if you perform Snake combos on them while they're still in the air), and although there's other MK villains like Shao Kahn and what not who have shown themselves to be more powerful, Shang still remains one of the deadliest enemies in Mortal Kombat, with his ability to steal souls, and then some.
The modern Shang Tsung was definitely at his best in the Armageddon intro, as he held more than his own against the zombie Liu Kang.
As for outside the games, my favorite version of Shang is definitely the one from Mortal Kombat Conquest (a live action TV series in the 90's that was cancelled after the 1st season due to budgeting problems), who was played by Bruce Locke. IMO, the one in the 1st movie kinda sucked in comparison.
Example of MKC Shang's awesomeness (with a couple scenes from the movie):
__________________
Last edited by Ridley_Prime on Oct 5th, 2007 at 11:16 PM
He was better in the first movie in my view. Much more imposing and sinister. From his intro where he owns Liu's brother and casually breaks his back to the infamous "your soul...is mine!" scene to when he finally battles Liu Kang, he was win.
__________________ "No, when Luke uses anger he turns into Stevie Wonder at batting practice."
Huh. Nice...
I never saw a DVD/video series of MKC though, and from what I read on wiki, MKC DVDs were only available in Australia or something.
Meh. At least they have all the episodes posted on youtube.
Besides Shang Tsung and Scorpion (or Taketa as he was originally called), my favorite character in that series was probably Siro, but they should've had him win more instead of just Kung Lao pwning all the time.
Yep, and in the episode where Master Cho (known as Bo Rai Cho in the games) temporarily disabled Shang from maintaining his youth, he greatly resembled the Shang Tsung from the 1st MK game.
Heh. Yep... though it's too bad they had to cancel the episode with Smoke (which the Lin Kuei apparently summoned to hunt down Sub-zero for betraying them), as it would've been nice to see how the human Smoke would fight in a live action movie/show (as opposed to his robot form that appeared in MK Annihilation). I'm guessing that episode was supposed to have been in the 2nd season, but they had to cancel that season due to budgeting problems that the producers/directors of the show had (from what I heard), so instead they just gave a cliff-hanger ending of Shao Kahn beating Raiden (who lost his powers due to unknowing fighting in Outworld) and the Shadow Priests killing everyone else.
What's funny is that in the storyline of the games, Shang Tsung was actually the master of the Shadow Priests (and used to lead them or whatever under Shao Kahn, before the events of Deadly Alliance) and was more powerful than them too, but in MKC, the Shadow Priests were physically invincible. One of them somehow 'countered' Shang Tsung's soul-stealing technique with their own magic...
Heh. I can see why...
Agreed, though as far as the games go, I like his red outfit best (from the latest titles that come after MK4), but still prefer the leather jacket most.
__________________
Last edited by Ridley_Prime on Nov 4th, 2007 at 12:17 AM
In the Mortal Kombat Conquest series, Shang Tsung puts up a somewhat decent fight against his former mentor, Master Cho (known as Bo Rai Cho in Deadly Alliance, Deception, and Armageddon, but Master Cho is simply a prototype of that character).
Shang may have lost (though he beats Cho in a rematch later on in that episode, which I don't see a video of), but it was still a pretty epic fight nonetheless (for the time of the show's airing at least). Plus, I love the quote "All your evil. This is where it began, there is where it will end".
------
Shang Tsung temporarily teams up with the Great Kung Lao to defeat Kreeya (a very powerful female warrior, exclusive only to the MK TV series) :
------
Shang owns Reptile (which I believe I posted in the Reptile respect thread, but whatever). Still a victory for Tsung.
------
Shang is at his prime in the Armageddon intro, as he basically owns the zombie Liu Kang before getting attacked by surprise at the end. He also defends himself against Shao Kahn before that. Seeing as how well he did there, Tsung probably wouldn't have even needed Onaga's help to deal with Kahn.
Respect Shang Tsung, the most badass sorceror in the series, and the first real villain in all of Mortal Kombat!
Oh, wait. Forgot about Quan Chi's 3 personal assassins. They don't really count though since Sareena's the only one you ever get to play as (in Armageddon only). She turns on Quan Chi anyhow, and joins the Lin Kuei. Anyhow...
Oh, yeah. Gotta love how Tsung mercilessly kills Liu Kang's younger brother, Chan (starting at 1:20).
"You will be next."
Gotta love that line as well.
-----
There's also this. Shang Tsung making major appearances in Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, which is basically an animated film released by Threshold Entertainment in 1995, as an unofficial prequel to the feature film that debuted the same year, and featured not only traditional 2D cell animation, but also motion capture and CGI to tell the origins behind several of the major characters, including Shang Tsung's. It's composed of 4 parts on YouTube.
KMC Community Forums
Oct 5th, 2007 10:01 PM
I thought I was the only one here until now. 
(which I believe I posted in the Reptile respect thread, but whatever). Still a victory for Tsung. 
