Mortal Kombat 2/Characters: Difference between revisions

{{quote|Shao Kahn was once The Dragon King Onaga's advisor. Before the Dragon King could obtain immortality, Kahn poisoned him and took his former master's throne. Eventualy going on to conquer countless lesser realms through brute force and Mortal Kombat, he consumed untold souls in his neverending quest for power. }}

{{quote|When he took Edenia, a milestone in his campaign, he murdered King Jerrod in battle and took his wife Sindel as his bride. He then raised Jerrod's daughter Kitana as his own and trained her to be his personal bodyguard. Sindel eventually killed herself rather than be his slave but even death would not free her of Shao Kahn; he trapped her soul in Outworld denying her the afterlife. His next target was Earthrealm. He sent Shang Tsung and then Goro to gain enough victories in Mortal Kombat to allow him to freely invade. Despite a 500 year winning streak, Goro was denied the vital tenth victory by Liu Kang, a descendant of the very man who had put an end to Shang Tsung's dominance of the tournament centuries ago. Enraged, Kahn brought Tsung before him to punish him personally. However the sorcerer begged him for another chance, one that the emperor believed might hold the key to undoing five centuries of wasted plans. The plan was to draw Liu Kang and his allies into an Outworld tournament where they would surely die. However, the champion of Mortal Kombat proved too great even for the emperor himself, defeating him personally. Unwilling to accept this, Kahn ordered his forces to kill the Earthrealm force but they managed to escape.}}

{{quote|Shao Kahn had one last plan up his sleeve however. Ordering Shang Tsung to complete a plan 10,000 years in the making, his long dead wife Sindel was resurrected, not on Outworld but on Earthrealm. This allowed Kahn to step through the realms to claim her and undermine the safeguards of Mortal Kombat, where he then launched a full invasion of Earth. Consuming countless millions of souls upon entering the realm he sent extermination squads to destroy those possessing souls he could not steal. The chosen few eventually defeated Outworld's forces, with the emperor falling once again to the might of Liu Kang. Shao Kahn was greatly weakened by this defeat and Earthrealm was restored. Much of his so-called loyal soldiers had abandoned him, and Kitana had turned Sindel to her side, restoring Edenia as an independent realm. To make matters worse for Kahn, the Shokan had joined them. When Shang Tsung and Quan Chi came before him to pledge allegiance, it soon became an assassination attempt and seemingly his reign had finally come to a violent end. However ''Deception'' revealed the emperor had planted a clone in his stead and restored the mortally wounded Goro with his remaining power regaining the Shokans as allies.}}

{{quote|In in the events of ''Armageddon'' he would go on to form an uneasy alliance with Quan Chi, Shang Tsung, and Onaga in the hopes of preventing the forces of good from defeating Blaze and then seizing his own oppertunity to strike when it came.}}

* [[Adaptational Attractiveness]]: Normally, he looks like a monster under his helmet (see "[[Butter Face]]" below). In ''Annihilation'' he looks like a regular human being. In ''Legacy'', he's even got a good head of hair!

* [[The Announcer]]: In ''MKII'' and ''MK3'', to the point that if he wins a round in the latter, he says, "''I'' win."

* [[Attack Reflector]]: From ''Deception'' to ''vs. DCU'', Shao Kahn can erect an energy barrier that reflects projectiles. [[Barrier Warrior|Contact with it can also harm his opponent.]]

* [[Badass]]

** [[Badass Boast]]: Delivers a truly amazing one at the begining {{spoiler|[[Book Ends|and at the end]]}} of ''MK9''. [[Evil Is Hammy]] at its best.

*** In ''MK9'', his younger self doesn't wear it, but the one from the original timeline does.

** {{spoiler|[[Subverted Trope]] in ''9'', where this trope actually proves to be the key to Shao Kahn's defeat and the prevention of Armageddon. Raiden's words to his past self ("He must win.") actually refer to ''Shao Kahn''; Earthrealm must ''[[Sheathe Your Sword|let]]'' Shao Kahn win and merge Outworld with Earthrealm so that the Elder Gods will then punish the emperor for his treachery.}}

* [[Cool Helmet]]: And as seen in ''MK9'', [[Rule of Cool|it got cooler]] as time went on.

* [[Drop the Hammer]]: It was his most feared special in ''MK3'' and later became his weapon style in the Gamecube version of ''Deception''. Raiden had one too for ''MK4'', before it got put on the top of the Lightning tower. (His favoured weapon's a Staff, which he uses in ''Deadly Alliance'' onward even though he supposedly gave it to Kai, canonically.)

* [[The Emperor]]

** [[God-Emperor]]: See "[[A God Am I]]."

''"You will never win!"'' }}

* [[Hammerspace]]: Literally in his case. Look closely at the sprites for his hammer attack in ''MK3'' and the move in ''MK9'' and it appears to materialize out of thin air.

* [[Hero-Killer]]: Was thought to have done this to Kung Lao in ''3'', but Kung Lao was [[Faking the Dead]]. {{spoiler|He kills Kung Lao ''for real'' in ''9'', and his self from the original timeline kills (at least) Raiden during ''Armageddon''.}}

* [[Immortality]]: Type II at least, though its not clear how he differs from the millions of others in Outworld or Edenia (or, basically, anywhere but Earth). Raiden explicitly refers to him as an immortal in the first film, and the games are somewhat vague on the matter. Several characters do try to kill him but actually doing it seems to be a bitch. However, {{spoiler|1=Raiden, with the help of the Elder Gods may have actually succeeded in killing him at the end of ''MK9''}}.

** He does seem to be the oldest of Outworld's denizens (who seems to be pushing tens of thousands of years), and when he offed Onaga he seemed to shelve the latters plans of gaining eternal life, suggesting he already had it. His origins have never been explored but its generally implied that he is was not an oridinary citizen of Outworld. The most plausible explanation seems to be that he is a god, or at least some kind of demigod.

* [[I Shall Taunt You]]: Subverted. He just taunts you because you fight against him in Outworld and you were supposedly stupid enough to want a fight with the big cheese around here. So he assumes that some casual gloating here and there won't hurt since, in his mind, he could swat you away with his index finger. However, in reality, there's nothing calculated behind these taunts and in doing so, he's unable to move or react so he's completely vulnerable to a big combo (this is a major part of beating him in ''II'' and ''9'').

* [[Large Ham]]: The all-time king in ''MK''. In some games, he takes time during the fight to [[You Fight Like a Cow|personally insult you]], spouting such nonsense:

''"It's official... [[This Loser Is You|You Suck]]!"'' }}

* [[Rouge Angles of Satin]]: We dare you to type his name on [[Google]] and take a drink every time it's misspelled as "Khan." Your liver will fail and you will die.

* [[SNK Boss]]: Shao Kahn in ''MK3'' and its updates (''Trilogy'' included). While his moveset is exactly the same as in ''MKII'' (even his sprites were mostly unchanged, aside from the addition of some new moves, such as his infamous hammer), he is way more [[Ax Crazy|Hammer Crazy]] than in his previous appearance.

** Back with a vengeance in ''MK9'', thanks to the ability to negate hit-stun with most of his moves (some of which are unblockable AND stagger), boosted attack and defense power, and inhumanly fast counterattack reactions. True to form of the title of [[SNK Boss]], he is very susceptible to a simplistic attack pattern (he's [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|aggressive to a fault]], attacking as much as possible and leaving himself open to being jumped over).

* [[Sophisticated As Hell]]: One of his taunts' is "You suck." There's also an even MORE faux-sophisticated, almost memetic version: "Its official. You suck!"

* [[Unholy Matrimony]]: Took Sindel as his wife after killing King Jerrod and usurping the throne, although Sindel was soon [[Driven to Suicide]] afterward. {{spoiler|This is more noticeable in ''9'', when he enthralls the [[Back from the Dead|revived]], yet [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] Sindel to his side, effectively making her his new [[The Dragon|Dragon]]. Sindel seemed pretty eager to serve as his right-hand woman. An almost exactly similar situation between the two also played out in ''Annihilation''.}}

* [[Victory Is Boring]]: If he takes over all the Realms in ''Armageddon'', this is his ending. Almost became canon, if it wasn't for Raiden rebooting the franchise before this could happen in ''MK9''.

* [[Villainous Valor]]: {{spoiler|1=In ''MK9''. Even when the Elder Gods (through Raiden) are telling him quite clearly how he's going to pay for breaking their rules, Kahn just scoffs at them and declares he'll be THE Elder God.}}