History Of Shang Tsung Mortal Kombat 11 (REMASTERED)

[0:08]Hey guys, it's History behind the Warrior and welcome to another history of video. Now today in order to celebrate the release of the iconic Shang Tsung, I'll be doing a full breakdown and analysis of the character's entire history. Ranging all the way from his very first appearance in MK1, all the way up to the current timeline in MK11. So it's going to be a very long breakdown and analysis of this character. So without any further ado, let's just get right onto it. Now, Shang Tsung is an extremely ancient and old individual in the Mortal Kombat universe. What I've always personally found very intriguing about the character is that despite his allegiance to Outworld, is that he in fact originates from Earthrealm. You see at one point back in time, Shang Tsung was in fact one of Earthrealm's champions during a Mortal Kombat tournament. Now, despite his allegiance with Raiden, Shang Tsung always had a mischievous and treacherous personality. So in the midst of the tournament, Shang for one reason or another would cheat during one of his fights. Now, because this obviously violated the rules of Mortal Kombat, he would be disqualified from the tournament. And the elder gods were not at all pleased of what he had done. So as punishment for not respecting the rules of Mortal Kombat, the elder gods would punish him by having him age at an extreme rate. Which is in fact why in many occasions we see old man Shang Tsung and young man Shang Tsung. Now after these events had transpired, Shang Tsung would try his best to negate this curse, but unfortunately it seems like the damage had been done by the elder gods. Now for many after being cursed by godlike deities, they may reach out for forgiveness. But Shang Tsung did not do this. Instead, he absolutely despised what they had done to him and cursed them out for being meaningless deities. Now eventually his situation and fighting talent would catch the attention of Shao Kahn, the current ruler of Outworld. Now knowing that the Earthrealm had held the same disdain that he did towards the elder gods, Shao Kahn would recruit him into Outworld's forces and personally teach him the dark arts. Which is in fact where he learned how to drain souls and prolong his own life. Now after many years had passed by, another Mortal Kombat tournament would be held. And Raiden was shocked to see that not only had Shang Tsung returned, but he was now fighting on the side of Outworld. And Earthrealm was not ready for the slaughter that was at hand. As Shang Tsung vanquished one enemy after the other, which eventually led to him winning the tournament and becoming Outworld's champion. Now the sorcerer adored his new position, as he was able to rub it in not only Raiden's face, but that of the elder gods. But all things do come to an end. As you see during the next tournament, Shang Tsung would go up against Earthrealm's new grand champion known as the Great Kung Lao. Now, the Shaolin had swept the competition. And when he fought against Shang Tsung, he quickly defeated the sorcerer. So after somewhat being humiliated in the tournament, Shang Tsung would semi-retire from participating. Only fighting in the tournament if he was directly challenged. Now, after his loss, Shang Tsung would be given the mission to find a new champion to represent Outworld. So he would seek out the Shokan and recruit King Gorba's young son, Goro. Now when he gained the favor of Prince Goro, Shang Tsung would help prepare him for the next Mortal Kombat tournament. And when it had begun, Goro killed everyone in his way, including the likes of the great Kung Lao. So this asserted Outworld's dominance once again over Earthrealm. And the pair would begin a long and dark reign, eventually leading to them winning nine consecutive tournaments. Meaning that they just needed to acquire one more win to allow Outworld to invade Earthrealm. Now, in between the events of his origins and the first game, Shang Tsung decided to stray away from just sitting on the sidelines of the tournament and began to create chaos wherever he went. Now, during his travels, he came across a very young and talented fighter known as Kenshi. Now, once he learned that the man was a Takahashi, a bloodline that was known for extremely talented fighters. He would fall the young man to claim his ancestral sword from a cursed well. Upon opening the well, he was blinded by his ancestor's soul, of which Shang Tsung consumed. Now, instead of killing Kenshi, he would cruelly leave the blind man alone, wanting him to die from his own greed and mischief. Now, during one of his other journeys, Shang Tsung would be confronted by a man known as Shujinko, who claimed himself to be the champion of the elder gods. Now intrigued by who this individual was, the two would have a sparring match, with the condition being that if Shujinko won, then he could enter the Mortal Kombat tournament. But instead of there being a true victor, this battle would end in a draw. Now the sorcerer didn't want to discredit Shujinko's talents and did offer him the opportunity to participate. But Shujinko would decline, saying that he had far more important things to attend to. Mortal Kombat 1. Now during the events of the first Mortal Kombat game, Shang Tsung does not play a large role for the majority of the story. Instead, he sits by and watches events unfold. Now, during the tournament, there is one individual in particular that does catch his attention. And that is Liu Kang. You see, ever since the fall of the Great Kung Lao, the Shaolin monastery started to train far harder over the next few decades. And eventually, it brewed up an individual that was considered to be Earthrealm's strongest fighter. And Liu Kang certainly did not disappoint. As during the tournament, he was able to defeat anyone in his way and even Goro and Shang Tsung. Now, when the tournament was over, he would return back to Outworld defeated. And Shao Kahn was disgusted by Shang Tsung's failure, wanting him to be executed on the spot. But the scheming sorcerer was able to propose a new idea to Shao Kahn. That being another Mortal Kombat tournament, of this time it would be held on Outworld's home turf. Mortal Kombat 2. So after suggesting this idea to Shao Kahn, the emperor would be rather pleased with Shang Tsung's idea, revitalizing him as a reward. Now, during the events of the second game, Outworld would continuously attack Earthrealm's champions, forcing their hand to eventually accept Outworld's tournament. And whilst this was going on, Shang Tsung was secretly given the task of reviving Adenia's Queen and Shao Kahn's former wife, Queen Sindel. Now, this proved to be a very difficult feat and did take an extremely long amount of time. So during the events of the second game, Shang was unable to bring her back. When we cut back to the tournament, despite the home field advantage that Outworld had, they are defeated once more. So the revitalized Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn weren't strong enough to stop Liu Kang. Now, despite his loss, Shao Kahn did not live up to his end of the deal and would continue to prepare his forces to invade Earthrealm. Mortal Kombat 3. During the events of the third game, with assistance of the necromancer Quan Chi, Shang Tsung was successful in reviving and bending Sindel to Shao Kahn's will. And with Earthrealm now vulnerable, Shao Kahn could proceed with his attack, creating multiple death squads and giving them the mission to massacre any Earthrealmers they came across. Now, despite being granted even more power during the third game, Shang Tsung still did come up short when he fought Liu Kang. And much like the second tournament, Shao Kahn would also be defeated by the Shaolin. So after his embarrassing defeat, the weakened emperor would return back to Earthrealm and take out his frustrations on Shang Tsung. Imprisoning the sorcerer and torturing him for many years, only releasing him when he inevitably got bored. Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance. Now, after the events of MK4, Shang Tsung had a rather miserable existence at the side of Shao Kahn. Now, understandably, at this point, the emperor harbored a deep grudge towards him, because in a way, Shang Tsung was responsible for having him look extremely foolish. Now, whilst exploring the courtyard of Shao Kahn's fortress, Shang Tsung would unexpectedly come across Quan Chi, who was on the run from his former servant, Scorpion. Now the two were able to fend off the specter and learn of each other's current position. You see at the end of MK4, Quan Chi had lost his master, Shinnok, and Shang Tsung despised Shao Kahn. So the pair decided to form an alliance and put themselves in a position where no one could stop them. But in order to acquire said position, they needed to remove the two biggest threats towards them, and that was Liu Kang and Shao Kahn. From there they would use Shinnok's amulet in order to revive the ancient Dragon King's army, and then they would bring the realms to their knees. Now, for those of you who are familiar with Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, you'll know for sure that the pair were successful in slaying Liu Kang and Shao Kahn. And this actually threw the realms into disarray, as no one expected such an event to happen. Now, after their victory, the pair would be approached by the Black Dragons, and they would offer their services to the Deadly Alliance. As understandably, they wanted to be on the winning side. Now as part of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi's deal, Quan Chi promised to create a soul tornado for Shang Tsung, so he could drain the souls from it and achieve a level of power he's never touched before. So with the Black Dragons, they would capture a small Outworld village and build a palace around them, as this would be where they would house the soul tornado. Now whilst this Outworld village was captured, one of its residents Li Mei would fight back. Impressed by her fighting capability, they would offer her an opportunity to free her home. And that would be if that she could win a tournament, then they would free her home of their control. Now despite all of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi's plans falling into place, the two did not trust each other and secretly began to plot behind each other's back. You see Shang Tsung would recruit the likes of Drahmin and Moloch in order to spy on Quan Chi and to keep up to date with what he was doing. Now Li Mei had won the very small tournament that they had put together, but instead of living up to their end of the deal, they took Li Mei's powerful soul and attempted to merge it with one of Onaga's mummified soldiers. But it was at this exact moment where Raiden and his Earthrealm defenders would appear and attack the Deadly Alliance. Now, despite Raiden's overwhelming numbers, Shang Tsung and Quan Chi's power proved to be far too much for anyone to handle. And not only were all of Earthrealm's defenders killed, but Shang Tsung and Quan Chi were able to defeat Raiden. Now, before they were truly able to savor their victory, the Deadly Alliance turned against each other. As the sorcerers could never truly trust each other. So the pair would fight and Quan Chi would in fact defeat Shang Tsung. But immediately after doing this, the Dragon King Onaga would return. And when Shang Tsung and Quan Chi realized who it was, they decided to work together in hopes of taking down Onaga. Even with assistance from Raiden and the God sacrificing his own life, the Dragon King's sheer power proved to be far too much for any of them to handle. Now, when Raiden exploded, Shang Tsung was caught in the blast, and it seemingly did kill the sorcerer, as it freed thousands of souls he housed within himself. Now, when his soul wandered back to Outworld, it would be captured by Shao Kahn, who did in fact fake his own death. Now, in order to save his own life, he would pledge his allegiance to the emperor. And as we were drawing closer to the end of the original timeline, Shao Kahn needed as many allies on his side as he could. As Armageddon was believed to be the final battle. So Shao Kahn would bind his soul to Shang Tsung, so if Shao Kahn did die, then Shang Tsung would suffer a similar fate. Now, of course, Shang Tsung utterly despised Shao Kahn. So when he learned about the great power that Blaze possessed, Shang Tsung wished to acquire it to sever his bond and kill anyone that stood in his way. Mortal Kombat Armageddon. Now, during this massive onslaught, Shang Tsung was one of the few individuals to nearly reach the top of the pyramid of Argus. But before he could get anywhere to actually touching Blaze, he would be confronted by the reanimated corpse of Liu Kang. Now, Shang is able to quickly defeat him, but the zombie proved to be far more relentless than he could have expected. And as he attempts to reach the top, the zombie begins to drain him of his life. But before we actually see a proper outcome to this battle, we see Blaze finally rise. Mortal Kombat 9. Now, the very opening of MK9 actually allows us to cut back to the end events of Armageddon. And due to the massacre that was going on at the pyramid of Argus, we do learn that Shang Tsung did fall. Now, with MK9 being a somewhat reboot of the timeline, the first time we do see Shang Tsung is when he's been the tournament's organizer for the event. So he is in a way still the same with the old man. The only difference is that in the new rebooted timeline, is that he seems to be far more villainous than his MK1 incarnation. Trying his best to sabotage Earthrealm at every opportunity that presents itself. Now, during the first chapter of the game, we see him hosting the tournament and decided to start the ceremony by having Johnny Cage fight Reptile. Now, despite the actor's cocky attitude, he's able to defeat a handful of Outworld fighters. And this does catch the attention of Shang Tsung, as he didn't quite expect the foolish actor to do so well. Now, later on in the tournament, whilst exploring Goro's lair, he happens to come across Sonya Blade. As you see, she had entered the Mortal Kombat tournament in order to rescue Jax, who had been kidnapped by Outworld. Now, although she was able to defeat Bi-Han and rescue Jax, when she was in the courtyard calling for a pickup, Shang Tsung would arrive with his other Outworlders, and they would shoot down her helicopter, preventing the two from escaping the tournament. So because of this, Sonya and Jax were somewhat forced to participate. Now, as the tournament progressed, Shang Tsung had noticed that one of his allies, Cyrax, was consulting with the Thunder God, Raiden. Now, believing that Cyrax would betray them, Shang Tsung would send Baraka and Sheeva to execute him. But the Lin Kuei assassin proved to be far too much. Now, during the climax at the end of the MK1 section of the game, after seeing Liu Kang defeat the extremely powerful Ermac, Shang Tsung sends Kitana to kill him. But she does seemingly fail. So during the final night of the tournament, Liu Kang is able to defeat Quan Chi, Scorpion, Goro, and finally Shang Tsung. And again, much like the original timeline, this stops Outworld in its tracks to invade Earthrealm. Despite winning nine consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments, this is yet again another blockage for Shao Kahn. Now again, as a callback to the original timeline, Shao Kahn wishes to have Shang Tsung executed, but he does present to him a new tournament, one which Shao Kahn happily accepts. Now, after Liu Kang is given his award at the Wu Shi Academy, Shang Tsung would appear and present the new tournament towards him. Now, originally Raiden paid absolutely no interest in wanting to participate. But when the Wu Shi Academy was attacked by a Tarkatan horde and Sonya Blade would be kidnapped, they knew they had to retaliate. So they would accept. Now Shang Tsung at this point in time does play a rather minor role in the story. Making a very brief appearance in Jax's chapter. However, in Smoke's chapter, we see him play more of an active role in the game. As he's currently in the process of making a deal with the Black Dragons to purchase weapons of mass destruction. It's here where they're confronted by Smoke, and he's able to defeat them. Smoke is currently on the mission of trying to find out what happened to the elder Sub-Zero. Now, before he can get a proper answer out of Shang, he would be attacked by a cybernetic Sektor, who was siding with Shao Kahn and his Outworld allies. Now Shang Tsung does make a very brief appearance during Sub-Zero's chapter. Where the young Kuai Liang is trying to avenge his older brother's death. Now the next time we do see Shang Tsung is when he's confronted by Kitana in his own flesh pit. You see, in the original timeline, when Kitana was kidnapped by Shao Kahn, she had a clone sister made by Shang Tsung under the order of Shao Kahn. But unlike Kitana, Mileena shed traits of a Tarkatan and a Edenian. So in the original timeline, the pair did grow up together and did at least share a minor sisterly bond. Whereas in the reboot, Mileena doesn't make her debut up until the MK2 section of the game. Where some tension begins to arise between Kitana and Shao Kahn. So she travels to Shang Tsung's flesh pit, as Raiden had informed her that if she travels there, she will gain answers. So when she arrived, she found Mileena, and instantly knew that Shang Tsung would be responsible for creating this monstrosity. So she would confront and defeat the sorcerer. Now when she dragged Shang Tsung to Shao Kahn's throne room, she was shocked to see Shao Kahn praise the sorcerer, to which he then obviously reveals Kitana's true heritage of being an Edenian. And that he wasn't in fact her father. Not too long after these events had transpired, Kitana would be taken to Shao Kahn's Coliseum, as she was scheduled to be executed. And the tournament continued to progress. And for a while, it actually did seem in Outworld's favor. But once Kung Lao decided to participate, he was able to defeat a handful of Outworlders, including the tag team of Quan Chi and Shang Tsung. Now, unfortunately, due to Kung Lao's extremely cocky nature, he did showboat after his victory, and it quickly led to his death. In retaliation for killing his best friend, Liu Kang would attack Shao Kahn, and also seemingly kill the emperor. Now, upon his demise, Shang Tsung can be seen amongst the other Outworlders deciding who will take over the throne. But you can't keep a good emperor down. As Shao Kahn does return with assistance from Quan Chi. And upon Sindel's resurrection, they would begin invading Earthrealm. Now during this massive battle and onslaught, many are killed on both sides of the war. But once Motaro is brought back to Shao Kahn's throne room dead, Shao Kahn realizes that he does need a Trump card. And he believes that that is the powerful Sindel. But in order to guarantee their victory, he would call over Shang Tsung and infuses his entire life force and essence with Sindel, essentially giving her a massive huge buff that would allow her to go on and kill many of the Earthrealm defenders. Now, in terms of official timeline and continuity, this is the last time we do see Shang Tsung. However, as we all do know, Shang Tsung does appear as DLC in Mortal Kombat 11. And it was mentioned on the Kombat Kast that apparently, during the time quake that merged the two timelines together, Shang Tsung was one of the few individuals to cross over. Now Chronica, the keeper of time, was well aware of Shang Tsung's treacherous nature. And thus denied Shang Tsung the opportunity to work under her. So she would imprison him in order to keep him out of the battle. But apparently, upon her defeat in Mortal Kombat 11, Shang Tsung was freed of her restraints. But might add that everything from his demise in MK9 onwards is somewhat still left up in the air. As he is a DLC character, and a lot of things can alter because they aren't intertwined to the main canon. So whether or not he does currently exist is still up in the air. Especially with Kitana and Liu Kang seemingly creating a new continuity. But yes, that is in fact it for the history of Shang Tsung. I hope you've enjoyed this video and come away learning more. Originally, this video was supposed to come out on Tuesday, but I wanted to take some extra time to make sure it would come out the way that I wanted. So I hope you are enjoying this video and you're currently enjoying playing Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat 11. Now, as we're on the topic of DLC, I do want to let you know for each DLC release, I will be doing a remastered history of video on them. So we'll be getting you all up to date with what's going on with their character and what exactly is going on with them here. But yeah, guys, that's actually it for this video. So before it wraps up, if possible, let's try getting it to about 500 likes. It's a great way of supporting this channel since YouTube's ad system is broken as hell. So by giving it a thumbs up, it helps out a ton. And also do not forget to take that bell, as it will notify you when I do upload a video. But yeah, guys, that's it for now. And as always, please comment, like, subscribe, and share this video with everyone you know. Please take care, and I'll see you all.