| “ | Grandmaster, I am sure you are asking yourself: can I afford to trust a man I have never met? But the true question you must ask is: can I afford not to? | „ |
| ~ Shang Tsung manipulating Bi-Han into joining him |
Shang Tsung is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Quan Chi) of the 2023 fighting game Mortal Kombat 1 developed by Netherrealm Studios, following the New Timeline created by Liu Kang after the events of MK11 where he defeats Kronika and takes her place as a titan, finally ending the endless cycle of timelines of constant death and suffering and creating a new era of peace with new beginnings for all the fighters.
He is the New Era counterpart of Shang Tsung, who was stripped of his powers and sorcery by Liu Kang in an attempt to pacify him and stop him from becoming a villain, though after an encounter with "Damashi" (secretly the previous timeline's Shang Tsung) would still end up going down a path of villainy as he would team up with Quan Chi and General Shao to help cause a great conflict between Earthrealm and Outworld. using the chance to leave a power vacuum for Damashi to take control.
He was voiced by Alan Lee.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Since the new games are not a total reboot, he still needs to be compared to some of the previous timeline's villains, notably Kronika, Shao, His Titan Self and Noob Saibot. However, Shang Tsung stands out enough due to his direct contributions to getting his titan self into the timeline in the first place, giving him the chance to destroy this and all timelines except his own, as well as being responsible for conflicts on the new timeline, such as driving Bi-Han to villainy and his unique crimes against the Tarkatans also help him stand out enough.
- From even before he was approached by "Damashi", he was shown not to be a good or moral person as he made a profit out of going throughout Outworld and providing false antidotes and cures to sick people as supposed miracles.
- Due to his manipulations to further his own goals, he becomes directly responsible for the crimes of some of the franchise's other antagonists:
- His manipulation is what ultimately turned Bi-Han into villainy, and as such makes him responsible for the rift between him and his brother as well as for turning the Lin Kuei into a villainous force.
- He is also partly responsible for some of Shao's future villainy as when he stated that Sindel would have to be removed for not being a strong ruler, he planted the idea of him as king in his head, further feeding his delusions.
- While he is played with a degree of sympathy in the prologue, he is not a tragic figure by any means as the entire idea of his character is that the whole world was reset and Liu Kang gave him a chance at a peaceful life but he instead rejected it and embraced evil once more. Even if he was goaded into it by Damashi, he already wasn't a moral man as he was shown to be a con artist who went around selling fake cures which caused innocent people to waste money and then die of illness. In-game dialogue shows him rejecting a chance at redemption multiple times.
- The only reason he aided in curing Mileena's disease was so he could gain Sindel's trust and manipulate her into believing Quan Chi's false prophecy of Earthrealm invading Outworld, pitting her against Liu Kang and causing discourse across the realms. Furthermore, his methods were extremely unethical as he forcibly extracted bone marrow from Baraka's colony, a process shown to be incredibly painful, and wanted said marrow to create more grotesque Tarkatan clones rather than cure the disease.
- While some in-game dialogue suggests he has standards against senseless destruction due to refusing to aid Havik's anarchy, this is rendered moot by the fact that he is shown to due relish destruction as he praised Rain's sinking of Seido and even mocked him over his remorse for it.
Mortal Kombat 1[]
- At some point he visited the farm of an old man whose daughter had fallen severely ill and sold them a supposed cure for her sickness, but only in exchange for as much money as possible, with the man even saying he "gave him all he had", this resulted in the man's daughter passing away from her illness and leaving the man in poverty.
- It's no better that he gives hope to innocents while being fully aware that his cures won't work and that he's condemning people to death. Even after the man tracked him down and called him out, he still tried to deny his false products.
- That night, upon being approached by a mysterious figure with promises of power and conquer throughout all the realms, he agreed without a doubt, gleefully smiling at the concept of ruling over everything.
- Over the next months, he studied every kind of dark magic and began planning along Quan Chi and General Shao to usurp the throne of Outworld. As part of this plan, he recruited Rain into their conspiracy and had Quan Chi begin experimenting in the living forest to create soulnados, gaining aid from Havik and Nitara.
- Wishing to know how to shapeshift, he kidnapped the family of the zaterran shapeshifter Syzoth and had him forced into slavery as his lab assistant with the promise that he wouldn't harm his family as long as he taught him the art of shapeshifting. After learning, Shang Tsung mercilessly killed Syzoth's wife and son and kept their deaths secret in order to continue using Syzoth for his advantage.
- He also infiltrated the court of Queen Sindel as a sorcerer claiming to be able to cure Princess Mileena's Tarkat affliction, by providing her with small doses of bone marrow to slow down the effects, he would obtain said bone marrow by constantly raiding a Tarkat camp led by Baraka and forcing the innocent Tarkatans into having their bone marrow extracted, a process shown to be exceedingly painful.
- He'd also use the bone marrow to conduct horrid experiments within the flesh pits in his laboratory, making horribly deformed Tarkatan clones and leaving them in extreme pain.
- Shang Tsung would also corroborate Quan Chi's false prophecy of Liu Kang wishing to conquer Outworld, creating tensions with Earthrealm.
- During the game's story, when Johnny Cage, Kung Lao, and Kenshi Takahashi enter his laboratory and stop him from giving Mileena the antidote dose (believing he's trying to infect her in the first place), he lets them fight the berserker Mileena while he avoided the action, leading to Kenshi having his eyes gouged out.
- While he did avoid the fight because he was working on an antidote to temper Mileena, it wasn't out of goodwill but merely to save his own skin and continue to be in Sindel's good graces to further manipulate her, further proved as immediately after Mileena was taken down and Kitana came in, he wasted no time in accusing the Earthrealmers of having infiltrated his lab to apprehend him and capture Mileena, with Shao knocking out Johnny before he can explain and the two of them trying to convince Kitana to lead a war against Earthrealm and planned to use their intervention as "proof" of ill will from Liu Kang.
- When Kitana refused and asked that the Earthrealmers simply be apprehended, he took them and Baraka to the dungeons of his laboratory instead and planned to experiment on them, sadistically describing his process of torture and how he would ensure they'd suffer extensively before their deaths, also wishing to use their deaths to further feed the conflict between the two realms.
- In his taunting, he also explained that he planned to torture and then kill Johnny, Kenshi, Kung Lao, and Baraka by having them vivisected and then using their corpses to make more grotesque clones. He also forced Syzoth to aid in this by having him release the Tarkatan experiments against them, throwing Kenshi and Johnny into cages and forcing Baraka and Jung Lao into a fight with Syzoth, to further show how horrible Shang Tsung's treatment of Syzoth was, after his defeat he asked Baraka to kill him, saying it would be a mercy.
- After they succeeded in beating his clones, Shang Tsung furiously decided to kill them all, even Syzoth despite his loyalty to him, releasing toxic gas into the atmosphere and locking them in the lab, cruelly revealing to Syzoth he'd killed his family and taunting him over it before leaving.
- He then had multiple Soul Stealers constructed for Damashi and prepared the Dragon Army, using dark magic to control it to his whims as well as planning on turning the Lin Kuei against Liu Kang.
- When Scorpion and Sub-Zero infiltrated the fortress, he had them apprehended by Ermac and Rain and brought them to the dragon army to explain his plans and all they would achieve, manipulating Bi-Han with promises of power and glory and playing with his ambitions of taking the Lin Kuei above Liu Kanh in order to twist his loyalties, and tried to do the same with Kuai Liang.
- After Scorpion refused to join and freed himself, he had the Dragon Army attack him and after he escaped, sent Bi-Han after him, leading to Kuai Liang having his face horribly scarred and him and Smoke renouncing the Lin Kuei.
- Cutting their losses, he and Quan Chi activated the Soul Stealers and began to prepare the Dragon Army for war, unaware that his schemes had been exposed to Sindel by Liu Kang. Later, as he and Quan Chi prepared, they were confronted by Mileena who tricked them into thinking she'd turned to their side in order to allow the Earthrealmers and Outworlders to ambush them, with him and Quan Chi quickly fighting back before being defeated.
- In this moment, "Damashi" arrived, revealing himself as the previous timeline's Shang Tsung now ascended into a titan, revealing his plan had been to use them to infiltrate the timeline and destroy it completely. Knowing this he teamed up with Liu Kang to stop the Titan Shang Tsung, however this doesn't redeem him, or make him On & Off as he only complied out of pure pragmatism and for his own survival as the timeline being destroyed would kill him as well and he would not be able to continue his own plans, he makes it very clear to Liu Kang that he despises being forced to work with him and goes immediately back to villainy afterwards, showing his aid was not genuine.
- He later helped the heroes in their attempt to stop Shang Tsung's forces from crossing over to their timeline, working with Raiden and Quan Chi to destroy the portals, and upon realizing they were tied to Dark Shao's life force, they sadistically killed him by extracting his soul. While it was for the greater good, they clearly took enjoyment in it.
- After this, he disappears completely and didn't even join the Union of Light in the battle at the Pyramid to save all timelines from the Deadly Alliance, further proving how self-serving his help was and that he's truly just a coward who's first priority is himself and nothing more.
- He only fought Titan Shang Tsung's minions in order to satisfy his own ego and take out his frustrations over being used by a stronger force, taking pleasure in the deaths of his enemies and mocking Raiden for being saved by an enemy.
- After being imprisoned and later escaping, washing ashore on an island and discovering a Well of Souls inside, he began planning on how to wield it's power to get revenge and plans to host a tournament of sorts. Further canon endings show that he continued to commit more crimes such as trying to steal Sento from Kenshi which revealed the existence of Outworld and magic to Jax Briggs, and trying to gain Bi-Han's attention by kidnapping his second-in-command Sektor.
What Prevents Him From Being Pure Evil?[]
- While his plethora of crimes and his aid to his Titan Counterpart more than allow him to stand out, he still lightly fails the heinous standard to his Titan Self and Titan Havik, as while it's unfair to compare them to an extent given that they're all powerful keepers of time and Shang Tsung is a mortal sorcerer, he's affected by the issue of most of his villainy being a direct result of "Damashi"'s orders, with him being the entire reason why Shang Tsung is even a sorcerer in the first place, not to mention most of his unique crimes were already committed by his Titan Self or others in the previous timeline.
- He was genuinely loyal to "Damashi", acting on their every whim and wishing to rule by their side, never making any indication that he wished to usurp or betray him at any point, showing genuine gratitude over being "elevated" from a life of poverty into sorcery and being shown to feel truly betrayed after "Damashi" revealed his true self and plans.
- Speaking of which, right before "Damashi" found him as said above, he was played sympathetically for a minor moment in the intro, as after being attacked by his customers, he removes his costume and sits sadly in the rain, outright stating he's barely surviving as it is and has no other choice but to do this for a living.
- Additionally, while it doesn't make him a scapegoat, this also plays into his anger to Liu Kang for stripping him of his power in previous timelines, while Liu Kang did do this change so that Shang Tsung would never rise to villainy again and remain harmless to the peace between realms, he could have handled the matter better, especially since he gave Sindel, Mileena and Shao, who were just as bad and in Shao's case arguably worse than Shang Tsung in the original timeline, lives of luxury within the royalty of Outworld and high ranking positions with heavy political roles and a more achievable second chance, whereas Shang Tsung was a beggar on the streets, so while he is NOT tragic by any means, his anger towards Liu Kang is at the very least understandable.
Trivia[]
- He and his Mortal Kombat Legends counterpart are the only two versions of Shang Tsung to not be ranked as Pure Evil so far.
- However, the Legends Shang Tsung is only not PE due to being outheinoused by the Lin Kuei Grandmaster, meaning this is the only version of Shang Tsung to have some redeeming qualities, though he also fails the standard.
- While currently NPE, this might change in the upcoming sequel game, as he could subvert what little preventions he has and become PE or become more sympathethic and become IH.
External Links[]
- Shang Tsung on the Villains Wiki
- Shang Tsung on the Mortal Kombat Wiki
- Shang Tsung on the Conflicting Good Wiki
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  Near Pure Evils
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