LogFAQs > #974220352

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/7/4/AATFBfAAEk46.jpg

Shang Tsung
First Appearance: Mortal Kombat (Klassic)
Last Appearance: Mortal Kombat 1

So Shang Tsung is legitimately awesome. Just everything about him is great, and I'm always happy to see him around. As a big bad, they really do a great job making him seem like a real intimidating force. He's a great villain.

Having various looks in these games, from an old man to a rejuvenated, sinister bastard, and sometimes somewhere in between. He just always looks like what you'd want in a villain in this franchise that is more down to Earth than your giant burley skull masked fellas or your pale-faced wizards.

He also stands out with his abilities that help him look like he's a real final boss. Firstly, he can shape shift into other characters. Fun Fact!: They did this because they had no more room to add a new moveset for Shang Tsung, so they just had him steal moves and forms from other characters. But it worked out and made him feel like he was really a step above the rest of the characters. He also has flaming skulls and volcano bursts and soul stealing and undead summoning. Like the dude feels like an honest to goodness dark sorcerer. And when you see him flex those skills, it always comes across as cool.

Shang Tsung's been there from the start though. He had lost to The Great Kung Lao (not to be confused with the mediocre Kung Lao in the present) in one Mortal Kombat tournament before getting fed up and bringing on Goro to massacre him in revenge so Shang could take his soul. From there, he had an iron grip on the Mortal Kombat tournaments and Goro remained undefeated in it for 500 years. Eventually, he ran into Liu Kang for the last Mortal Kombat tournament Shang needed to win so Shao Kahn could invade Earthrealm. Liu Kang beat Goro and stomped his ass and then Shang Tsung had to go back to Shao Kahn and beg for his life, and Shao allowed him a second chance and restored his youth!

And then Shang Tsung failed again and Liu Kang beat his ass once more. Whoops. But after that, Shang helps resurrect Sindel, Shao Kahn's wife, on Earth to exploit a loophole that allowed them to invade Earthrealm after all. During the invasion, Liu Kang beat his sorry ass AGAIN and then Shao Kahn decided he would just do a little torture on him for his failure. He then formed a DEADLY ALLIANCE with Quan Chi, in which he would help kill Shao Kahn in exchange for having a SOULNADO created to give Shang Tsung unlimited power. They team up and kill Shao Kahn. And then they go and kill Liu Kang.

And surprisingly, him and Quan Chi won and defeated all of the Earthrealm warriors! But they could not coexist and fought each other, with Quan Chi being victorious. But then they released Onaga, the Dragon King, who they tried to team up to fight, but Raiden used a kamikaze blast that killed Shang Tsung, releasing all of his souls. His soul goes to Outworld to a now-alive Shao Kahn who owns his soul, and he throws him in a host body and then Shang Tsung begrudgingly works for Shao again. Only he finds Quan Chi again and they concoct another evil plan, but not before they join the big super villains club for Armageddon. Canonically, he was about to achieve everything by getting to Blaze at the top of the pyramid, but Zombie Liu Kang stopped him from doing so. Perfect.

Then in the reboot trilogy things stay the same, but instead when they resurrect Sindel, Shao Kahn is sick of Shang Tsung's shit and takes all of his soul power and throws it into Sindel, killing Shang. And that's it for him. But he does come around in MK11: Aftermath, where he and a few others were locked away by Kronika for not playing ball. They return when she's defeated and Shang tells Liu Kang that he needs to send them in the past so they can get Kronika's Crown to allow Liu Kang to use the Hourglass to change things properly. Liu Kang does so because of course he does.

They go to take the crown, but Cetrion is watching it and is supposed to be super duper powerful, so Shang brings on Sindel to help. Eventually, they resurrect Sindel and go to grab the crown, only for Kronika to come try to get it, but he and Fujin work together to defeat her! And so Shang Tsung takes the crown, betrays everyone with Sindel's help, he betrays Sindel and Shao Kahn, and then kills Kronika, and then has a final showdown with Liu Kang over the crown. And then you can choose to have Liu Kang win and Shang Tsung disappears, or Shang Tsung wins and creates his own tyranny over the entire universe. Oh, and he's coming back to stir some shit in the new game to disrupt Liu Kang's perfect world.

So that's Shang Tsung. One thing I wanted to say is that even though Shang has been a follower of Shao Kahn a lot, and he's been dead a lot, he still comes across as a legitimate threat in the series. It's a testament that all of the main villains in Mortal Kombat can look legitimate. Shang Tsung is certainly one of them, and when he's in his element, making schemes and killing fools, he's awesome and maybe the most compelling main villain in MK.

Unfortunately, he does look like a punk ass when he's not looking awesome, which hurts. But I love seeing Shang Tsung more than I don't, and he's always a welcome addition. It's just hard for him to not take up space in the villain realm, so he's absent from many games. Give me more Shang Tsung than most other villains though. I love to see it. Because he stands out and is always memorable.

Grade: A-

Related Time He Was Used To Do Joker's Censored Fatality Uncensored:
https://youtu.be/UjfT4UuaUQg