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Place of Origin Outworld
Appearances Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat 3
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Mortal Kombat Trilogy
Mortal Kombat Advance
MK: Deception (GameCube version)
MK: Shaolin Monks
MK: Armageddon
Fighting styles Tai Tzu (MK , MK:A)
Lui He
Weapons Wrath Hammer (MK, MK:A)
Alignment Evil
Portrayers Brian Glynn (MKII, MK3, UMK3, MKT)
Steve Ritchie (voice) (MKII, MK3, UMK3, MKT)
Brian Thompson (second film)
Jeffrey Meek (MK: Conquest)
Shao Kahn is a boss and recurring playable character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series.
About Shao Kahn
One of the primary villians in the Mortal Kombat series, Shao Kahn (frequently misspelled as Shao Khan) resembles an Asian warrior-king in many respects, and embodies evil in many forms. He is known for his godlike strength, extreme callousness, brutality and his fondness of personal executions, but rises above the level of a mere warlord through his intelligence and knowledge of black magic. Like his subordinate Shang Tsung, he has the power to consume other souls. His greatest strength is probably his ability to work towards his goals with great tenacity and his ability to organize, but his greatest weaknesses are his arrogance and his overconfidence.
Storyline
Shao Kahn originally served as an advisor to Onaga when the latter ruled Outworld as the Dragon King. Onaga's Empire had become the most powerful in the realms and so he began searching for a way to become immortal. Before his goal could be realized, Shao Kahn made his move by poisoning Onaga and taking his kingdom. Leading whatever troops that remained loyal to the Dragon King, Kahn continued many of the former emperor's plans. He continued to add lesser realms to Outworld, either through direct conquest or through Mortal Kombat.
A milestone in his military victories was the merging of Edenia with Outworld. After his warriors had won in Mortal Kombat, Kahn invaded the realm. On the battlefield, Kahn killed King Jerrod, and took Queen Sindel as his wife, raising her daughter, Princess Kitana, as his own. He had the young princess trained as his personal guard and as an assassin. Sindel took her own life in an attempt to escape subservience to the Emperor. Unwilling to be denied, Kahn held her soul in Outworld, stopping her transition to the afterlife.
Many years later, Kahn chose Earthrealm as his next conquest. He sent Shang Tsung and eventually Goro to Earthrealm to prepare it for an invasion. A turning point came when Prince Goro defeated the Great Kung Lao and started a winning streak that would last for 500 years. Shang Tsung, a shapeshifter, supervised the tournament. The tenth Mortal Kombat however, saw the defeat of both Goro and Shang Tsung by a Shaolin monk, Liu Kang, ruining five hundred years of Tsung's investment. Shang Tsung begged Shao Kahn for his life, and came up with a plan to lure Earth's chosen warriors to Outworld for a second tournament. Shao Kahn spared Tsung's life and restored his youth. If Earthrealm's champions could be killed, they would not be able to cause further damage to Kahn's plans. With the captured Kano and Sonya Blade as bait, and enraging Liu Kang by sending Baraka and his troops to destroy the Shaolin temples, they confidently waited for the Earth warriors to fall into the trap. Despite Kahn's vast power, Liu Kang's determination saw him through, and he defeated the despot. Unwilling to accept defeat, Kahn called his armies to destroy the Earthrealm warriors. They fled back to Earthrealm, out of Kahn's clutches.
Shao Kahn (Mortal Kombat: Deception)By this time, Shang Tsung was able to resurrect Queen Sindel in Earthrealm, and Kahn could reach across the border to claim her, merging Earthrealm and Outworld in the process. Kahn had Tsung proceed, and when the realms merged, every living being in Earthrealm had their souls ripped from their bodies. Kahn's day finally seemed to have come. Lord Raiden had protected the souls of a handful of warriors, but Kahn sent extermination squads to kill them. In the ensuing fights, Kahn was confronted by Kung Lao, another Shaolin monk and descendant of the warrior Goro defeated to become champion of Kombat, but Kahn crushed him. Raiden brought Liu Kang to fight him again, and the Shaolin Monk wore Kahn down enough for him to recall his squads and retreat to Outworld, which stopped the merger and restored Earthrealm to its original status. To make matters worse for Kahn, many of his loyal soldiers had abandoned him, and Kitana had succeeded in turning Sindel to her side, restoring Edenia as an independent realm.
The emperor was now greatly weakened, and would remain so for a period of several years, remaining inactive during Shinnok's war against the gods. The Edenians had in the meantime made peace and military treaties with the Shokan, on whom Kahn had always heavily relied, and were ready to attack Outworld a few years later. It was only through his new commander Kano's ingenuity, and the stealth of his unreliable assassin Noob Saibot (who critically wounded Goro) was Kahn able to save the day and force the Edenian army into a draw. Soon afterwards, the sorcerors Quan Chi and Shang Tsung entered his throne room, and swore false allegiance to the emperor. Quan Chi and Shang Tsung caught Shao Kahn off guard and murdered him. This was the demise of the mighty emperor.
Possible future
Shao Kahn and Goro slaying Onaga (Kahn's MK ending)In the Gamecube version of Deception it is revealed that Kahn did not die, and that it was a clone that Quan Chi and Shang Tsung killed. Later, Kahn appears to the wounded Goro, and in his ending, the two assassinate Onaga, reaffirming Kahn as emperor. Whether these events will be considered canon remains to be seen, as both Onaga and Shao Kahn are confirmed as returning in the upcoming Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.
The Xbox and Playstation 2 versions of the game state that Havik, a high priest of chaos entered the defeated Dragon King's chambers and consumes the creature's still warm heart, thus imbuing him with Onaga's ability to raise the dead. Havik, in an effort to perpetuate chaos, resurrects Shao Kahn. Whether these events will be considered canon remains to be seen, as both Onaga and Shao Kahn are confirmed as returning in the upcoming Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.
Shao Kahn, along with Sindel, will be featured on one of the covers of the four Premium Editions of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for Playstation 2.
Memorable moves
Energy Spear Shao Kahn would summon a javilin shaped object made of energy and then hurl it at his opponent. (MKII)
Charging Spikes Shao Kahn would shoulder ram his opponent with a green streak following behind him, much like Johnny Cage's Shadow moves. (MKII, MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK)
Wrath Hammer Attack Shao Kahn would summon his Wrath Hammer, seemingly from thin air, and smash his opponent over the head with it. In Mortal Kombat: Deception the Wrath Hammer became a weapon style and thus was no longer needed as an individual special move. (MKII, MK3, UMK3, MKT)
Explosive Blast Shao Kahn would fire off a green star like fireball, seemingly from his mouth. (MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK)
Uplifting Knee Shao Kahn would perform a rising knee attack with a green streak following behind him, much like Johnny Cage's Shadow moves. (MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK)
Emperor's Shield Shao Kahn would perform an uppercut like motion that would not only throw up a force field for a split second to deflect projectiles, but could also knock an opponent off his/her feet if physically too close. (MK)
Ridicule Shao Kahn would often taunt, mock, and of course ridicule his opponents with insults, mockery, or just plain laughter. A trademark of Shao Kahn's and what makes him one of the more memorable bosses in fighting game history. In Mortal Kombat: Deception performing a Ridicule could heal Shao Kahn, though only a tiny sliver of health would be recovered and could only be perform three times a match before it was automatically disabled. (MKII, MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK)
Grab and Punch Shao Kahn would lift his opponent up by the throat with one hand and then smash his fist into their face sending them sailing back. In Mortal Kombat: Deception it's simply his throw, and if performed next to death traps could automatically knock opponents into them. (MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK)
Fatalities
Human Nail I – Shao Kahn hammers his opponent into the ground leaving only their head sticking out of the ground. He then laughs before hammering his opponent into a bloody explosion. (MKT:N64)
Human Nail II – Shao Kahn hammers his opponent into the ground and then, when they are buried up to their torso, smashes their head off. (MK)
Home Run – Shao Kahn uppercuts his opponent, and smashes them to pieces with his hammer as they fall. (MK)
Final Judgement – If the player loses any one of the final 3 battles between Shang Tsung, Kintaro and Shao Kahn in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, the following fatality is triggered. Shao Kahn steps onto the arena and gives the player a thumbs down. Kahn then bashes the player with his Wrath Hammer twice, the second strike sending the player flying onto Kahn's throne, dead. (MK:SM)
Other finishers
Hara-Kiri – Shao Kahn tosses his hammer into the air, and it comes back down on his head. (MK)
Movie appearances
Shao Kahn appears in both Mortal Kombat movies, although he is played by different actors. In the first movie, he is referred throughout the movie as "The Emperor." He appears briefly at the end, but only as a special effect. In the second movie, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Kahn is played by Brian Thompson; he is ultimately defeated and killed by Liu Kang.
In Annihilation, as an attempt to shock the viewer, Raiden announced that Shao Kahn was his brother and Shinnok their father. He bore the same tattoo on his right shoulder as a sign of their family that Raiden wore. This has never been made official in the MK canon (nor even mentioned for that matter), and most fans have dismissed this as another example of how far-removed from the games Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was.
Thompson, because of the movie being a box office flop, was often accused of overdramatizing his character in many scenes.
TV appearances
Shao Kahn appears in Mortal Kombat: Conquest, played by Jeff Meek. Despite having lost much of his physical stature from the games and movies, he has a much more threatening disposition, though he rarely interacts with the heroes of the series (due to his inability to travel to Earth). Jeff Meek's role is more interesting when one considers that he played Raiden on the same show, occasionally opposite himself.
Shao Kahn also appeared in several episodes of Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm.
Trivia
A maskless Shao Kahn in the official MKII comic by John TobiasKahn started out unmasked and with large gnashing teeth similar to Baraka, since everyone from Outworld was originally to be of Baraka's race. The idea of all inhabitants of Outworld being Tarkata was later dropped.
In MKII, Kahn was digitally resized to a taller height to make him tower over the playable characters. Ironically, the actor who played him, bodybuilder Brian Glynn, was not nearly as imposing in comparison; a photograph published in GamePro magazine of Glynn and Ed Boon standing side-by-side, which was snapped during production of the game, surprisingly showed that Boon was taller.
In many official depictions of Shao Kahn made by Midway, he is shown wearing a cape, which he takes off before starting a fight. Mortal Kombat Deception was the first game in which he wore the cape in-game.
Kahn was never seen unmasked in a game until Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks where, once he loses half his health, a scene plays in which he pulls out a hammer and throws it at the player, which the player throws back at him and smashes the mask to pieces.
His height has been changed considerably since the 2D Mortal Kombat games, in which he practically towered over most of the other opponents. His physical appearance has also been altered; Kahn had formerly been bigger proportionately than his foes.
Shao Kahn's voice is an ever present sound in the Mortal Kombat games. Even when he isn't present, he can be heard as a form of 'commentator' with phrases such as "Outstanding" and "Excellent". He also 'orders' you to finish your opponent at the end of a match (supporting his character type). His voice can be heard in Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict, which featured Mortal Kombat themes. It is amusing to note that due to Shao Kahn being the announcer, he will say "I win" whenever victorious in Mortal Kombat 3. Also in the same game, upon defeating Shao Kahn there is no victory announcement at the end of the round because of the same reason stated previously.
A 1993 UK-published strategy guide for Mortal Kombat II described Kahn as being "dressed like a '70s disco queen."
Kahn's name was incorrectly hyphenated in the closing credits of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation ("Shao-Kahn").
In Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, there are a few glitches involving Shao Kahn. The most noticeable is during the fight with Kintaro, in which Kahn has vanished from his throne, yet his voice can still be heard. Another includes Kahn's body dissappearing, leaving the player fighting his armor. | |
