| Shao Kahn |
 |
| Game series |
Mortal Kombat series |
| First game |
Mortal Kombat II (1993) |
| Voiced by |
Steve Ritchie (MKII, MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK:SM)
John Vernon (MK: DotR)
Patrick Seitz (MKvDC) |
| Live action actor(s) |
Brian Glynn (MKII, MK3, UMK3, MKT)
Brian Thompson (second film)
Jeffrey Meek (MK: Conquest) |
| Information |
| Origin |
Outworld |
| Fighting styles |
Tai Tzu (MK:D, MK:A)
Lui He(MK:D)
|
| Weapons |
War Hammer (MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK:D, MK:SM, MK:A) |
Shao Kahn is a boss and recurring playable character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series.
About Shao Kahn
One of the primary villains in the Mortal Kombat series, Shao Kahn (often misspelled as Shao Khan) is the Emperor of Outworld. He 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 enjoyment of 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 others' 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
Pre-Mortal Kombat
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.
Mortal Kombat II
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 in the event of Goro maintaining his position of champion. 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 Liu Kang, ruining five hundred years of Tsung's investment. Shang Tsung begged 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. Kahn concocted a plan to lure the Earthrealm champions to Outworld; if they could be killed, they would not be able to cause further damage to his plans. He captured Kano and Sonya Blade to use 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.
Mortal Kombat 3
By this time, Shang Tsung was able to resurrect Queen Sindel in Earthrealm, and Kahn would be able to cross the border to claim her. Kahn had Tsung proceed, and once he invaded Earthrealm, he began to merge it with his own realm of Outworld. Nearly every living being in Earthrealm had their souls ripped from their bodies by Kahn, claiming them as his own. Kahn's day finally seemed to have come. But not all hope was lost, as Lord Raiden had protected the souls of a handful of warriors. Kahn sent extermination squads to hunt them down and kill the remaining survivors. It would be these chosen warriors task to try to stop Kahn, and return Earthrealm to its normal state. In the ensuing fights, Kahn was confronted by Kung Lao, another Shaolin monk and descendant of the warrior Goro defeated to become champion of Mortal Kombat, but Kahn crushed him. It was Liu Kang who again managed to defeat Kahn. Worn down from the battle, Kahn recalled his squads and retreated back to Outworld. This stopped the merger with Outworld, 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.
Deadly Alliance and Deception
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 (in a manner of speaking) and force the Edenian army into a draw. Soon afterwards, the sorcerers 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 seemingly killed him. This would appear to be the demise of the mighty Kahn. In the GameCube version of Mortal Kombat: Deception it is revealed that Kahn did not die, and that it was a clone that Quan Chi and Shang Tsung killed. The real Kahn appeared to the wounded Goro and, using what little power he had left, revived him, thus gaining Goro and the Shokan as allies once again.
Armageddon
In the events of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Shao Kahn is the Emperor of Outworld once again. It was revealed in the bios of Shang Tsung and Mileena that Shao Kahn had regained power after Onaga's defeat, by storming his own fortress (then under the command of Mileena who had earlier deceived and used Kitana's Edenian force to capture the fortress) with the aid of Goro and Shang Tsung. When he succeeds in using his own brute force to storm the throne room, Mileena surrenders to him and Shao Kahn becomes Outworld's ruler once more.
Later on, he would go on to form an uneasy alliance with Quan Chi, Shang Tsung, and Onaga in the hopes of defeating Blaze and seizing his godlike powers. In his ending, Shao Kahn makes his way to the top of Argus's Pyramid for the final confrontation with Blaze. Shao Kahn proved to be too powerful for Blaze and easily defeated him. Shao Kahn's armies destroyed what was left of his enemies, and with the power Shao Kahn received from defeating Blaze, he merges all the realms with Outworld. With his main goal completed and having complete control over all the realms, Shao Kahn grew insane with boredom, as he had nothing else left to conquer.
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
At the beginning of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Shao Kahn is shown after his defeat limping into a graveyard where he meets with his secret ally Quan Chi. Where they are shortly confronted by Raiden, who uses a lightning bolt on Shao Kahn, which knocks him into Quan Chi-s portal. This event, along with a similar event between Superman and Darkseid in the DC Universe, results in the creation of Dark Kahn, who serves as the main villain in the game. After Dark Khan is defeated, Shao Kahn ends up on Apokolips, where he is powerless. Superman smiles and imprisons him in the Phantom Zone. In his ending however, being in the Phantom Zone actually revitalizes his powers, and breaks free. He frees an army of prisoners from the Phantom Zone who swear allegience to him so he may conquer the universe.
Character development
A maskless Shao Kahn in the official MKII comic by John Tobias
Kahn 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.
It was originally stated that Shao Kahn is a demonic character, and his monstrous visage from the official comic books, as well as Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks lends credibility to that. However, in the most recent games he appears to be more along the lines of a large, powerful human. His face has only appeared in MK:SM, in which he is hit with his war hammer and his helmet breaks.
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 in 1993 of Glynn and MK co-creator Ed Boon standing side-by-side, which was snapped during production of the game, showed that Boon was taller.
In many official depictions of Shao Kahn made by Midway, he is shown wearing a cape, though he never wore one in his original digitized appearances. Mortal Kombat: Deception was the first time in which he wore the cape in-game. In Mortal Kombat Annihilation, he once throws it at Liu Kang as a weapon. MK sound designer Dan Forden explained that the reason for Kahn not wearing the cape in earlier games, in addition to Kabal not being able to wear a trenchcoat in MK3, was that loose flowing clothing took up memory.
Combat characteristics
Signature moves
- Light Arrow: Kahn throws a large light arrow at his opponent. (MKII)
- Charging Spikes: Kahn shoulder-rams his opponent, similar to Johnny Cage's Shadow moves. (MKII, MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK:D, MK:U, MK:SM, MK:A)
- Wrath Hammer Attack: Kahn smashes his opponent over the head with his war hammer. (MK3, UMK3, MKT)
- Explosive Blast: Kahn shoots a green fireball. (MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK:D, MK:U, MK:SM, MK:A)
- Uplifting Knee: Kahn hits his opponent with a rising knee attack. (MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK:D, MK:U, MK:SM, MK:A)
- Ridicule: Kahn mocks his opponent during battle. In Deception, performing a Ridicule recovered a slight amount of Kahn's health, but could only be performed three times per match before it was automatically disabled. (MKII, MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK:D, MK:U, MK:SM, MK:A)
- Grab and Punch: Kahn grasps his opponent by the throat and punches them repeatedly. In Deception, this is simply his throw, and could knock opponents into nearby death traps. (MKT, MK:D, MK:U, MK:A)
- Emperor's Shield: Kahn throws up a brief force field to deflect projectiles, which also harmed opponents who got too close. (MK:D, MK:U, MK:A)
Recurring fatalities
- Human Nail: Shao Kahn hammers his opponent into the ground leaving only their upper torso sticking out. He then laughs before hammering his opponent into a bloody explosion. In MK:D, he would hammer them into the ground up to their head, he then swings his hammer against his opponent's head, smashing it. (MKT N64, MK:D)
Appearances in other media
Film
Shao Kahn appears in both Mortal Kombat films. He is referred to only as "The Emperor" in the first movie and makes a brief appearance at the end, but only as a special effect.
Kahn was the main villain in the sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, and was played by Brian Thompson. In an attempt to shock viewers, Raiden announced that Kahn was his brother and Shinnok their father, in addition to Kahn and Raiden both bearing the same family-crest tattoo. This non-canon angle was widely dismissed as another example of how far the picture was removed from the games. Thompson, because of the movie being a box-office flop, was often accused of overdramatizing his character in many scenes. Other criticisms include Thompson only wearing Kahn's signature mask twice, as well as the small size compared to the game Kahn.
Kahn's name, incorrectly hyphenated in Annihilation's closing credits, was additionally misspelled as "Shoa-Kahn" on the DVD release's fight scenes menu.
Television
Shao Kahn was played by Jeffrey Meek (who also played Raiden) in Mortal Kombat: Conquest. Despite having lost much of his physical stature from the games and movies, he has a much more threatening disposition. He served as the mediator of the Mortal Kombat matches. Meek played opposite himself in the series finale, where Kahn battled Raiden in a void seemingly between the realms. With Kung Lao dead, Shao Kahn forced Raiden into submission and commenced full military assault on Earthrealm. The series was discontinued following this event.
Shao Kahn made several appearances in the animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, playing his usual role of Outworld's emperor and leader of the enemy troops. He was voiced by John Vernon and Michael Des Barres in separate episodes.
Comic books
Shao Kahn makes his first appearance during the Battlewave series of Malibu Comics, though he already was present during the first, Blood & Thunder. Shao Kahn remained mostly faithful to his game counterpart, being the Emperor of Outworld and attempting to take Earthrealm for himself. During the two series, he never appears wielding his trademark helmet, instead always shown with his visible face and design taken from the official Mortal Kombat II comic written by John Tobias. However, in Kitana & Mileena, a comic about Kitana's past, Shao Kahn does appear wearing his helmet.
Shao Kahn appeared during Blood & Thunder while communicating with Shang Tsung by means of a big purple orb. He became disgusted by Shang Tsung's hold of the tournament, so he used his powers to bring all the kombatants into Shang Tsung's palace, triggering the big fight shown in the Tournamend Edition final issue.
In Battlewave, Shao Kahn would arrange a different plan to open the portals. He kidnaps Sonya and, by means of hypnosis and brainwashing, convinces her to marry him. The marriage would weaken the barriers between realms enough to allow Shao Kahn to seize Earth easily (and make Sonya the queen of both realms and his wife). During the wedding ceremony held, however, the wedding would be crashed and he would be stopped by the Earthrealm warriors' interruption, ending with Sonya becoming free from Kahn's influence. Shao Kahn then would devise a tournament of sort: a race to reach a Medallion high into a frozen cliff. Two teams were arranged, with the ultimate victor being Sub-Zero for Earthrealm.
References
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