Its kind of confusing. Kahn ripped out all of his souls and put them in Sindel amping her, but then she eventually is defeated, yet when Quan Chi uses the fallen warriors in the Netherrealm Sindel is among them, but Tsung is not. Then Kahn was defeated, leaving what happened to Tsung's soul(s) up for debate.

I wouldn't count him out just yet though.

I find it confusing, too. I mean, even disregarding Shang Tsung's case itself, it had never before been a rule that a victim completely disintegrates when his/ her soul is taken away. He/ she may turn into a dried-up skeleton at worst, but it was never anything close to a disintegration. Why did they decide to make that exact epilogue for Shang Tsung?

To make the matter still more perplexing, there is an implicit possibility that SHao Kahn helped restore Shang Tsung after his host, Sindel, was destroyed (thus preventing Tsung's appearance among other Quan Chi's warriors in the Outworld). But that one is also under question, because why would Kahn destroy Shang Tsung only to ressurect him just a little later (assuming he actually meant to punish the sorcerer for his faliures but getting rid of him for good; at least that's how Kahn operates with his servatns for all we know about him)?

I don't necessarily see him being gone completely. I do hope they redeem him because as much as I love this character, I hated how he was in 2011.

I'd like to believe he's in the Netherrealm. I mean, after all his powers were the only thing that got transferred. (I'm never letting that tweet go)

So yeah. I have more to say but I can't now cuz I'm at work.

I certainly hope that's not the end of the character. As the first major villain of the series and one of the staples, I don't think the end he got in that game was worthy of him, though that could be said of a lot of characters.

Part of me feels like he's been designed to job to Quan Chi so much that they don't really know what to do with him. I remember being upset when I saw the opening of Deception and watched as Shang, 9 time winner of the Mortal Kombat tournament before Great Kung Lao showed up, loses a fist fight to sorceror Quan Chi. I can accept the pale man as more powerful where the magic is concerned, but Shang should at least be more respected when things come to blows. More of a force to be reckoned with.

I remember someone else suggesting that Shang should come back and be mad as hell at Quan Chi for what his scheming cost him. Maybe work with the heroes for a while to get revenge. I think that would be a GREAT bit of tension for the story, especially if Kenshi is along for the ride, as many of us suspect.

There's still plenty that can be done with this little soul stealer (Hell, Quan's even beating him on THAT front now, too ) so here's hoping there's more left of him than a little green mist.

Yeah I think they forget these things sometimes. The one that gets me is Goro , who had a 500 year winning streak gets defeated 3 separate times throughout the MK9 story, and each time by a different person (Kang, Lao, Cyber-SZ)

I never saw Quan Chi even as a better sorcerer, either. All magic he ever presented us with were chewing skull-throw, telestomp, and hypnotize (only in MK9), which are basically the standard supernatural moves of so to say most of the crew. And storywise, there was the soul transplantation thing in MKDA, which Shang himself was also much familiar with. After all, both of them are necromancers, meaning what ever one of the two knows, the other one should know (more or less) as well.

The MKD intro thing was, in my opinion, necessary to balance up the long row of Shang Tsung's victories. He already defeated Liu Kang, Shao Kahn's clone, Kung Lao, and Raiden, while Quan Chi's victory string was shorter (at least minus Liu Kang), so it was kinda thought it would be too much for Shang to defeat Quan Chi, too. He was repaid pretty well in the MKA intro, though.

Asian Hugh Hefner seems toast: for one, it seems Kahn forced his possession fatality on Sindel, without Tsung getting the upper hand. Since Sindel has been killed by the GDI Ion Cannon, no body remains, so yes, he is pretty much vapour.

Most likely he is deceased. I would really dislike the team if they put an end to him. Shang is like the IDW Transformers Starscream, eternally scheming, but his fate is ultimately NOT the replacement of Megatron.


If they decide to use him in the way MK9 arcade suggested, fine, but please, PLEASE do not turn him to the light. This guy is potentially the most vile out of the bunch.

Kah is megalomaniacal with a god-complex. Quan Chi is a demon, so by nature (eargh, how such things kill me) he is sadistic.

Shang tsung is evil by nature, by choice. An underdog who manages to swim with the flow. Basically the ultimate political everyday survivalist without any morals.

The reason I say Quan is the more powerful sorceror is because they tell us on several occasions that Quan is. I seem to recall some piece of lore saying he's the strongest of all of them because of the powers given to him by Shinnok in exchange for freeing him.

I always figured that the reason Quan Chi allied with Shang was that he was specifically better at transplanting a soul from one body to another, which there was going to be a lot of considering the size of that army. Maybe he also has a more academic understanding as well, having been in charge of the Flesh Pits, while Quan has more of an instinctive use of his powers. And it makes sense that Shang got the kill on Liu Kang (which we see required some assistance from the pale man) because he's the one with the vendetta in that situation. I don't recall any specific mention of Shang Tsung being the one to put down Kung Lao, just that he was defeated with everyone else. And we all see how Shao Khan and Raiden took the combined efforts of the Deadly Alliance to put down.

I mention all this because most of his story before teaming up with Quan Chi is one of failures, most of which come from facing off with Liu Kang, hence the vendetta. So I wouldn't say Shang Tsung's list of victories is absolute or anything. Even Quan's only main failure before that point (being trapped in the Netherrealm with Scorpion) had come after manipulating Shinnok and the heroes such that he wound up with the Amulet and was in position cause some serious problems. And then it led to him finding an army waiting for him to lead it.

And given how short lived the victory was, it seemed more like they were just trying to prove the point that they wanted Quan to be stronger than Shang, even though he was right next to a soul portal we'd just seen could heal him... which, thinking on it, might explain why he gets up about ten seconds after having his neck snapped.

You might have a point about the Armageddon intro as well, as I had forgotten about that. Still hoping to see him again in MKX for the story possibilities I mentioned earlier. With any luck, he'll win a few more story fights than he did in the last game while he's at it.

While it would be somewhat of an interesting twist to see him go after Quan Chi, there's no way he'd be ever good.

I mean, you can still be evil and go after another evil person. He doesn't necessarily need to suddenly change alignment because his enemy could be Quan Chi if they decided to make him go after him.

I would like to definitely see Shang Tsung make a come back and redeem who he was before all of this mess came about. So let's keep fingers crossed please!

Eugh, I hope that's not the case. I never did like the whole "Shang pledged his soul to Shao Kahn" thing they devised in Armageddon. Someone as sneaky, sinister, and knowledgeable about souls as Shang should not be THAT stupid to pledge their own soul to another. I can't even...

But the circumstances of Shao Kahn's, er...death...may give Shang Tsung a loophole. Shao Kahn was either completely destroyed or imprisoned by the Elder Gods. It's possible that Their intervention (as THE muthafuckas that run the MK Universe) was sufficient enough to dispel the magic that bound Shang Tsung to Shao Kahn.

I'd love to see him return. No more leash to Shao Kahn now!

Shang was treated like a clown in MK2011... kind of undeserved in my opinion. Although his fate is unknown, NRS should bring him back and give him the hatred towards Quan Chi that he had in Mortal Kombat Conquest (I think I already said this in another thread). Killing him off like Kahn did in MK2011 would be a real waste for such a badass character.

Oh, I certainly wouldn't see him as a good guy if he came back. I see him in more of an "enemy of my enemy" situation. Maybe he has knowledge that the heroes need and the generally similar goal of taking down Quan Chi. If Kenshi is working with the good guys, then Shang would very happily gloat over the fact that Kenshi can't just kill him like he wants to unless he's cool with dooming everyone to whatever plot is going on. Definitely unrepentant for however many people he's killed over the centuries.

Still evil, still a villain, but working with the heroes because f@#k that guy.

I'd like to think that Shang Tsung was smart enough to have a backup plan similar to Shao Kahn having a clone as his backup. Shang's work in the flesh pits already give an opening to Shang using one of the bodies as an anchor of sorts for his soul, were it to ever be expelled from his body and with him essentially dying it releases him from his ties with Shao Kahn.

When Kahn "kills" Shang and transfers his powers to Sindel his soul escapes and finds its way to the new host body in the flesh pits.

All wishful thinking though.

100% Agree!

He was a total abomination in MK9. If he is in MKX, they can certainly fix what they messed up. I hope he get his normal 1, 2 and 3 fireball moves back along with the ground eruption. Never mind having them as an enhance move, it just sucks. He can attain his soul steal special to change into his opponent, but I would rather have him go back to his old roots and be able to change into everyone.
I would (as probably everyone) would like for him to attain his Soul Steal fatality. Of course it would be a new version, which I think they can make it like how he did it in the MK1 movie.

All this if he is in playable. Who knows, he may return as boss and only able to throw fireballs and morph like in MK1.

Given the limitations we've seen in Shang's recent showings of shapeshifting within the game, they might limit that to one of his variations. Similar to what we've seen with Raiden's Displacer variation with his teleport ability. That way they could design a build entirely around that (maybe having him change forms between hits of a combo?) while also having something designed for some of his other aspects.

Shang Tsung better be in story mode atleast as a cameo or something even if he is not playable or only DLC. I want to know what happened to him after he died.

Disappearing into thin air doesn't mean he died.

I still believe that Shao Kahn is not dead. After being defeated by Liu Kang Shao Kahn orders Reiko to put on his helmet and go through the Portal to fight Raiden in his place.

I also think Kahn used Skarlet to uncover Quan Chi and Shinnoks plan

Kinda like how he was in MKvsDC. Strangely, his moves and story were much stronger in that non-canon game.



ZOMG!! Shang comes back as MEAT confirmed !!!!!!11111!!!1111!!!11

Seriously, though, he'll be back one way or another at some point. He has to because rarely do any characters disappear forever (poor, unfortunate Hsu Hao).

I doubt we will see him back in this game, I'm ok with that though. Although I wonder how his shape-shifting abilities could have worked with the variation system.

Shang Tsung is the past, he was the main villain in the first one, and played an interesting role in the second and third. I consider his arc completely done by the third game. There was Deadly Alliance and all of that, but let's leave him dead and create newer, more menacing villains.

Sindel is shang tsung, she can't die as she is already dead.
She might will be the new sorceress as femele shang tsung, or the new boss depend of the evolution in these 25 years

So... Shang tsung is in truth, Rei Ayanami?


That.. would be awesome and hillarious and sad.