@Irfan Alddin Not to mention, despite Shao Khan's flaws in the reboot, at least he wasn't beat up in the first minutes of the game by Johnny Cage, unlike Shinnok, which diminish him as threat.
@Irfan Alddin True, not to mention that the game would end with another reboot, which means it didn't matter who lived or died. In the end of the day, all the character would be erased by the restart of the universe. The creators could easly had Shao Khan killing everyone on screem and without any problem.
@Irfan Alddin They could even redeem Shao Khan even more as villain by having him be responsible for turning Sindel evil again. Rather then using that stupidy retcon of Sindel always been evil, the creator could had Shang Tsung working with Shao Khan to brainwash her again in the middle of the game, while the heroes were distracted. Then he would use Sindel to escape and kill the other heroes and after that kill Sindel, leaving him and Shang Tsung as the only fighters to battle Kronika. That would not only fix Sindel's story in MK 11 but also showcase Shao Khan been not just a strong badass but also a smart and cunning villain.
I kinda felt his origin in the new 52 was kinda like god of war and i do think having him and highfather related kinda works as it gives Highfather more of a reason to be hard on Orion to not let his nephew follow the same path as his in law
remember when Shao Kahn had an actual personality with pros and cons? remember how he was physically strong and cunning at the same time? forget it, now even Sub-Zero's side chick gets to mock him
@@bectip2229 hold up,wait a goddamn minute!.. Frost Is Sub-Zero’s Side-Chick????(Are You Mad??!) even though He ONLY ever saw and treated Her as a Daughter He never have
Shao Kahn was always my favorite. They did him dirty in MK11. Shao Kahn is responsible for: 1. The rules of Mortal Kombat exist because of him. 2. He is the direct reason Shang Tsung, Mileena, Kitana, Sindel, Ermac, Skarlet, and the kollector are the way they are. 3. His victory over blaze in the final battle was the reason the whole timeline got reset. 3. He conqured Edenia, Brought the outworlders, tarkatans, shokan, and centaurs together under his banner. 4. Both the heroes and villians have to remove Kahn to be victorious. 5. He's not only one of the physically strongest characters in the lore but his knowledge and use of magic is unparralled. (He taught Shang Tsung soul magic, and he created Skarlet and taught her Blood magic) 6. He Bested Raiden, a literal god, in every timeline they fought. 7. Bested Kotal Kahn in both confrontations, breaking his back during the second encounter. 8. Is apparently the only character outside of Raiden, Shinnok, and Cetrion(Gods), who knew who kronika was. In MK 11, they neutered him hard. He loses his throne, gets ursurped by Kotal, gets killed by Kitana, and gets treated like a Thug by Kronika. Every character in the games aside from maybe Kronika and Quan Chi, are reacting to the moves made by Kahn. He is, the single most Important character in the series. He is the catalyst that drives the conflict forward.
Not edenian 3 but the other third about Blaze, I wanna say If anything, He may have teamed with Dark raiden to fight Onaga AND THEN when Taven was winning with weapons to kill Blaze, They teamed up and Shao Kahn finally took his powers.
"Is a child's understanding of the character". Say it louder for the people in the back, please! That sentence encapsulates my eternal frustration with modern storytelling, in any medium today. Most characters are one note jokes, and we fans are supposed to accept this.
For the longest time, I wanted Dark Raiden to be a final boss with an undead Liu Kang as a sub-boss. Show people what happens when Raiden doesn't hold back.
Old Shao: "My people have spoken! And a king must, if only once every millennium or so, listen to the will of his people." "Where are the Elder Gods, Raiden? Their pathetic Mortal Kombat shackles me no longer.They masquerade as dragons, but are mere toothless worms. My venom spreads, it is the end of all things... Armageddon. It is done... Your time has passed. Ages wasted in foolish resistance! Now is the dawn of my rule... Yes. Pray to the worms, Raiden, as your world ends." Current Shao: *TRUMP MEME*
@@RasenKamehamehaX100 I honestly have no idea. Injustice 2 and 11 is where the garbage really piled on. I dunno if they brought in some massively incompetent writing staff there, or if the past was just a fluke.
@@RasenKamehamehaX100 I'm assuming that many of the writers at Netherrealm greatly dislike Trump and decided to write him in Shao Kahn considering all he did was get his ass kicked in 11.
Shao kahn, ladies and gentlemen. A complete shadow of his former self. Oh, my god. Ruining and destroying his character was a mistake. A very big mistake.
Bee Mulu I agree, man. Could’ve been awesome if they saved him for the next game. But, no. Unfortunately, they failed to remain him a spectacular villain just like the older mk games. Missed opportunity.
Thank you for actually caring about the Lore unlike the developers. I’m a huge mortal kombat fan and one of my first ever memories of gaming was thinking it was impossible to best shao kahn on mk3 for the sega genesis. If kitana can beat shao kahn then what’s the point of i dont know, liu kang existing?
He speaks for the 90s kids the guys who grew up on quarter swallowing arcade cabinets the guys who spent $20 just to get dropped by khan in 30 seconds and hear hahaha I win
Raikage757 Shao kahn was one of my favorite all time mortal kombat villain in history. He was awesome and more menacing. Especially intimidating. Now, he’s a complete shadow of his former self. Turned him into a complete joke. By the way, shao kahn’s death in mortal kombat 11 still gets me angry to this very day.
@@rasheedshields4716 so how did he escape onaga's grasp in Armageddon after being kicked? I though onaga ripped out his heart, arm n finished him while flying away with him. To be honest, onaga should be the one beating Raiden to death.
@@dayksteveforrealz4038 wtf are you on about? He might like kitana you never know. What he was trying to say is shao kahns death was crap and that kitana would never have a chance against kahn.
In the 2nd and 3d games all we had to go off of was this iconic voice. he watched and enjoyed fights, laughed when something amused him and would even compliment something impressive. You always felt like this guy was incredibly powerful and in control of everything. And the crowd cheered for him at the arena when he beat your ass. A charismatic ruler who knew how to hold his (presumably) gigantic empire together, despite many realms not liking being subjugated. Beating Kahn never felt like you've just beat a bodybuilder. It was like toppling a mountain. I've always loved Jeff Meek's portrayal of Khan in "Conquest". Imposing, powerful, scheming and intolerant to failures. He made some of the most awful writing there kinda work.
“How dare you beg for death?!!” And it sucked that even his portrayal couldn’t escape the bad writing, as they always made Khan look like an idiot who didn’t even know that Shang Tsung was killing his spies in his own prison.
Shao Kahn: "Join me, and conquer realms!" Noob: "Name *one* realm you control..." Shao Kahn: "Sharp tongue for a dead man!" I *really* enjoyed this video. It brilliantly puts to light how much of a shadow of his former self Shao Kahn has become.
He went from losing to Liu Kang and an Elder god powered Raiden to losing to Kotal Khan and Kitana Kotal couldn't beat Jin who couldn't beat Sub-Zero (not to low ball Sub-Zero) and Sub-Zero can't beat anyone who isn't a jobber or some who is important. Kitana lost a 10 v 1 fight againist a Shang Tsung powered Sindel. WTF
I was OK with them having Kitana beat Shao Kahn. Liu Kang always made less sense to me. She's got thousands of years or so of fight experience. He's a talented Shaolin but he's probably been training for 20-30 years vs her centuries. Shao Khan same thing. Having said that, having her win after Sindel did that 10 v 1 thing was ridiculous. For anyone to win after that kinda would be. Except someone exceptionally powerful like Raiden. I get Liu Kang is pretty much the most powerful but I never really get why, other then he's sorta the poster boy.
Kahn is in his Actual name since Onaga called him this during his rule as well as Raiden and the elder gods even in the new timeline stating when Shao Kahn usurped the throne
It's a solid representation of the whole thing, yes. The whole NRS situation does kind of remind me of the WWE not too long ago having a hard time writing new wrestlers into stardom/getting the most out of their ageing upper core while also having a disconnect with fans. At least, NRS has the solace that their games play fine and whatnot.
Thun Fish Wait... An intelligent strongman with abilities beyond his size pushed to dumb himself down to fit a certain set of criteria... I dunno if I'm thinking about George Steele or Paul Wight's early years as "The Giant."
There were scenes that basically made it pretty easy to assert his dominance in. Though it had the same problems of just having him sitting on his throne, being an idiot, and continuity errors, but actor, Jeffrey Meek did a cool job playing him and Raiden nonetheless
@@TheKpa11 i like him because he ID threatening without acting and talking like a brute... I like villains that can contain their villainy..yiu know what i mean?
glorilol 95 well I wouldn’t say he contained his villainy, the voice actor had him speak in a pretty deep voice casually, then when he lost his temper he makes his voice bark and he screams. He does have some presence, but that’s due to his position in the lore of MK, you just had to accept he was the big bad ruler who had power to assert himself when he needed to, which was rare.
I have a feeling the plot should have been quite different from what we've got. They teased Raiden as a new antagonist and hinted at Tsung's participance back in MKX but none of it happened. Dark Raiden could have been so cool, he could enforce his opinions on Earth's governments, try to control Special Forces to assault the Outerworld. He could be Earthrealm's version of Shao Kahn and it would have been sad to finish him off because of his long story as a protector of humanity, a hero, a good friend. But hell, yeah, let's instead have bald plain villainess whom will never see again as our antagonist, who has no backstory at all, jump in, say: "OMEGALUL" and ruin everything.
Past vs Future. Light Raiden vs Dark Raiden. By the end Light Raiden would come to realise there is a point where you go too far even if it is for the protection of Earthrealm. It writes itself! How could they miss such an easy opportunity!!!
This kind of reminds me how Euron Greyjoy was adapted from a Song of Ice of Fire into Game of Thrones. In the books he's a mysterious Pirate Warlord who may or may not be working for a Lovecraftian Old God that gives him special necromantic powers. He's so ruthless that he cuts the tongues of his own crew members so they don't reveal any of his secrets and he possesses spells to bend even Dragons to his will, not to mention... implied Krakens he's luring to the battlefield. In the show he's just some brute Cersei gets to work for her because he wants to get laid. Talk about underwhelming :/
And, there we go. The cherry on the shit cake that is the Netherrealm timeline. The absolute butchering of Shao Kahn's character. No longer is he a powerful, but also cunning villain feared by everyone and nigh unbeatable (I quote "You plan to defeat Shao Kahn? Whole realms have tried to overthrow him!"), now he's just an absolute joke, a meathead with no brain power whatsoever who reveals his plans on a whim (at least plans that did remain his and weren't handed over to fucking Quan Chi) to his own detriment and loses to everyone he fights, even to fucking KITANA, who no matter how you try to twist it would never be able to defeat Shao Kahn in a direct fight. Not to mention the stupid parallels they try to draw to Donald Trump with him because "orange man bad" and "Shao Kahn bad" Netherrealm Studios is a fucking joke. Absolutely no one there understands Mortal Kombat and its lore and I believe they have no desire to learn it and do the series justice, they seem all too content to shit on the entire series and anyone who's truly a fan of it as their white knights try to deflect any and all rightful criticism thrown their way. And Ed himself seems content to just sit back and watch his series burn because of them And the sad thing is, I still really have a passion for Mortal Kombat. I grew up with it, I remember just how great it used to be, how well written the story and characters were even if it wasn't perfect and not all the characters reached their true full potential. To see the series I'm so passionate about get so butchered, so disrespected by those asshats at Netherrealm Studios who think they know the series better than us when they probably haven't even been alive longer than most of us have been fans of MK just absolutely pisses me off. The day Netherrealm Studios burns will be a damn good day, and I can only hope that when they do burn, Mortal Kombat will land in the hands of someone who will actually show it and its characters the respect they're not only due, but deserve
Im curious about your opinion on the Tekken franchise, because i sincerely believe that franchise jumped the shark, especially on the character storylines because other than the main characters, the others are given no context. Tekken 7 is a joke to me, and no amount of spectacular gameplay will change that to me. Sorry for my rant, but many fighting games are empty husks of their former selves.
Ed is just there to collect the check. And they pretty much just reboot the history to the beginning of times because they want to start from scratch, except of course they will sell us the characters we like as DLC, because not only did they ruin characters and story, they turned MK on a money grabbing joke.
@@vilkopoljak7370 Tekken's story was pushed to the side with tekken 5 (effectively a tekken tag 1 update in terms of character models). All the characters you saw had very little connection to why they are there. Paul wanted to fight Kazuya (when in T4 he wanted to prove he was the greatest like he claimed after T3), instead he was defeated by Kuma and turned into Tekken's version of Dan Hibiki (despite his shortcomings prior to T3, he still held his own in terms of his personality rather than a walking playback machine), constantly espousing his greatness to everyone. Since than the tekken series started to treat its writing with less interest, turning the series into merely another title at evo. Tekken 7 is the last straw in this topic, what with bringing Akuma to the story, removing much of the classic cast and trying very hard to capture the serious tone of T4 (without the seriousness that defined that game or its depth).
I prefer Onaga, but they did do Shao Kahn dirty. He came off as more of a brute with strong magic compared to the Emperor who made plains and could outsmart his enemies. If I remember correctly the reason he had the Shokan, Tarkata and Centar competing for his favor wasnt just for sport. He did it to keep each faction busy and to prevent tbeir number from getting to big to be a threat to his reign.
"Magic"? The only thing he does is swinging that hammer of his, fucking Quan Chi is the one doing all the magic...I remember in the old timeline how it was Shao Khan who tough SHANG freaking TSUNG magic.
@@Tyrik73 I know I was describing the current Shao Kahn as a brute. Onaga is my favorite villain but I'm terrified if NRS ever decided to bring him back
The development of MK11: MK Fans: Dude we like that character NRS: Yeah, about that. It honestly feels like they made MK11 out of spite for the fanbase because they couldn't immediately work on Injustice 3 or something.
Monkey Bone my theory is that they realized how badly they fucked up MK lore and just decided to scramble together an ending to the new trilogy, giving a flimsy excuse for all the contradictions and plotholes in the form of Kronika and resetting the universe again to make a more cohesive story in MK 12. Although that may be wishful thinking on my part
Hahaha no ive see more of him being slapped around like a battered house wife then anything all he's missing in the new one is tears and a bitchy little cry while running away flapping his hands at the wrist.
WAIT!! Is it just me or are they making Kotal-Kahn sound like a good guy version of OG Shao-Kahn. Both are well respected warriors who served under there respective rulers, as a second or third in command. Both were supposed to be incredibly intelligent leaders, that are very cunning Both use a combination of dark(blood) magic and brute strength to fight. Both use a blunt object as there main weapon( mace and a hammer) Both hated there respected rulers Both wear an elaborate head gear Both were forming alliances while under there ruler, which is what ultimately led to them becoming kahn Both are exceptionally tall, shirtless, macho, aggressive(mk10 Kotal), Tyrannical(mk10 Kotal), and married or banging an Edenian of high regard.
The funny thing is that Kotal in MKX is a joke. He loses to fkin Jin and only beats jobbers like Kano and the he puts the "kombat kids" into prison because "eArThReAlM cAn'T KeEp ThE aMuLeT sAfE" this could have lead into a war, but yeah, he is a competent ruler for sure. He is just not that violent, but that's all..oh wait, he would have killed all the tarkatans in MK11 Whoops
@@herbalyzoltan409 They did Kotal dirty in that aspect, but what I feel most people don't understand about Kotal's decision to imprison the kombat kids is that the shinnok's amulet couldn't be kept in outworld because Mileena would get to it. Sonya chooses to guard it and Kotal lets her, only for Kotal to see later on that mileena has the amulet and that it's obvious that earthrealm fucked up in keeping it locked up. So when Mileena is captured and killed and the civil war is ended, Cassie goes "lol time to take this home". Kotal stops the kids because Quan Chi needs to get the amulet to free Shinnok so it'd be better to keep it in outworld where Quan chi isn't. His capturing of the kids was in case Raiden was going to pitch a fit over it. Moreso, the whole reason a fight took place between Kotal and Jin was because a commoner was going to be executed for stealing food (in a time of war where rations are in short supply), yet when the kids are imprisoned he *gives them food and water.* Had the kombat kids NOT broken jail, Reptile, Ermac, and Erron Black would have found them still in their cells even though D'vorah turned traitor and would be able to put two and two together to figure out that they aren't with her. Kotal's decision to capture the kombat kids when he invades earthrealm is also logical since Shinnok has consumed Earthrealm's Jinsei and he wanted a bargaining chip to pretend to be Shinnok's ally so that he would have time to defeat shinnok on his terms. Which makes me really curious as to how Shao Kahn would have gone about dealing with Shinnok... Pre NRS Shao Kahn, that is.
At least Shinnok had a reason why he was easily defeated by Johnny and Cassie Cage and that is that the green halo is Anti God energy. Shao Kahn's defeat by Kitana's hands is inexcusable
Shinnok had presence and charisma in MKX. Yes, he was done dirty because NRS wanted Kombat Kids to be the stars, but at least they did good with his personality.
@@ShadowSumac Exactly. To Shinnok's credit, he was at least charming on-screen (and as easy he was in MK4, his end in that game in pretty nebulous all things considered... plus he was still entertaining...) and only got defeated by the script. Corrupted Shinnok should have a triple phase fight at least... Shao Kahn however, Yeah the old one was damn cool and imposing and more than capable of long-term scheming. The new one is a side of beef with a hammer...
@@saidi7975 And apparently under the heel of Sindel who inexplicably has been retconned into being evil all along. IDK, what current NRS writers smoke, when it comes to the old characters.
Shao Kahn Midway era = a seriously powerful and intelligent qonquerer of the dark arts that was feared by all of his followers and turned a Wasteland into a medieval empire and a Guy that can beat up a God and might be the protector God of outworld himself (there is proof) who only could be defeated by the strongest shaolin monk thanks to his arrogance. And killed the ancient dragon king Onaga poisoned (and maybe in battle)! And might i add had some of my favorite voice lines. And outsmarted the 'Elder Gods', (the justice league, the legion of doom from the dc crossover) and everyone in all of the realms!! Shao Kahn netherrealm era = A dumb brute that never won a single fight! Who got defeated by one of the weakest canon characters in the series. And who follow everyone's orders who tell him they are unique strong beings. Hell if they wanted to bring him back in MKX as a revenant he wouldn't even needed to be brainwashed by Quan Chi and Shinnok! Love you Midway Shao Kahn. And fuck you netherrealm Shao Kahn!
Khan wouldn't even need to alter Kitanna's memories. he could just lie. something like: I was not your mother's first husband. Jerrod was abusive and she had two affairs. One with me and one with a Tarkatan warrior. Those affairs resulted in both your and mileenia's birth. however your sister's birth went wrong when Jerrod realized her betrayal and attacked them. Mileena nearly died and I ordered Shang Tsung to clone her a new body. So he finally succeeded, well done Sorceror.
That’s…… honestly a great idea for an adaptation for Shao Kahn. He keeps the real reason why Mileena was created hidden from Kitana, while also turning Kitana against her father by making Jerrod out to be a horrible person and awful person and make it seem Sindel only “chose” Kahn because he was a good and better partner for Sindel to have and actually treated Kitana like a daughter rather than a tool to use. And the Reason Sindel offed herself is because she was left scared and mortified by her “abusive relationship” with Jerrod and the memories were too much for her to handle.
@@zakeermcconnell388 And when Kitana learns the truth she feels terrible for wrongly despising Jerrod. It is such an easy lie that he should have said it. It's not's like Jerrod can contradict it.
This game (Among many games or shows I’ve played/seen/watched) seem to be afraid or don’t go far enough to use the “Loss/win thru attrition/fatigue” writing concept, that being that if you have a super powerful person, they should be defeated by being exhausted by having one or several opponents face the super strong dude at once or simply stall, in order to allow the idea that fatigue and prior damage has been accumulated, so it could be reasonable for weaker, but important characters to legitimately win. This is mostly in anime and anime based games that messes this up the most as I’ve seen, and even in fighting games like Street Fighter
When MK first came out, I was young enough that I was banned from playing it by my grandmother and was only allowed to watch my older cousins and brother play it. Shao Kahn always stuck with me because he scared my younger self. As I got older, he became my favorite character BECAUSE he looked like a meathead, but was really a tactical genius. While I always gravitated to Liu Kang and Quan Chi as my mains, I liked Shao Kahn a fair bit more than either of them. And to see what NetherRealm has reduced him to has just been... tragic, to say the least.
@@jackalcoyote8777 Yeah, but it's too bad that he no longer has the air of a big boss character. I mean, this is the dude responsible for the downfall of Onaga. Like, I headcanon that he poisoned Onaga for years to weaken him enough that he could kill him. Then after he "died", Shao Kahn framed Edenia as being the culprits and framed his invasion and subsequent conquest as revenge. This would then gain him the support, love, and loyalty of his people. In this headcanon, Shao Kahn uses his tactics, intelligence, and cunning to usurp power.
@@Radio_CosmicRay Compared both are hit or miss. I personally loved the story of the reboot, and I also liked some of the subplots, like how Scorpion went from being an angry soul to form a bromance with Sub-Zero, and the introduction of new Characters like the Kombat Kids was interesting, as to show The Next Generation of new characters. MK11 was mostly weird and many times left scratching my head, but the ending just says "reeboot" of the story again. So I think MK12 will be more crazy, maybe they will include the concept of more crazy powerful beings, along with dimensions. It has a lot of potential TBH.
And the way they did Shao again in MK1 was just... WHY IS HE A FUCKING JOBBER?! Shao seemed to have actual character for the first time in a while, actually being loyal to Sindel and wanting what's best for outworld... Only to completely blindly trust a Shang Tsung who he doesn't even know beforehand in the new timeline. Even genuine idiots know you don't trust someone you don't know
Always thought it would be neat if Reiko was a magical clone of Shao Kahn, the way Meleena is a clone of Kitana, the clone would take his place if the current Shao ever died. This would both explain why Kahn can apparently come back from death and also gets rid of the Reiko character.
@@ShadowSumac yeah he is number 5 in my top 5 most evil villains in Mortal Kombat beaten by Onaga, Shinnok, Kronika, and Shang Tsung in that order. That's right I just said that Shang Tsung is the most evil villain in Mortal Kombat and I don't give a flip about what anybody tries to say to make him seem less evil since you can't can't make him seem less evil since he is pure evil so much so that even Kronika is scared of him.
Shao Khan: I cannot believe I'm saying this to a Earthrealmer, but thank you for opening up my eyes, I should put my act back together. Now if you please me, I'm about to take advantange of Sindel's new personality before she came back to her senses and decide to divorce me.
Shao Kahn reminds me of Bane, Bane when he first debuted was very smart and tactical, he broke out everyone from Arkham and Blackgate and tired out Batman for three months which gave him enough time to deduce Bruce Wayne being Batman and took advantage of him being weak. He kept being smart even when he fought Valley, such as run away so he can recharge on Venom and take advantage on the fact that the only power source Valley had was his gauntlets, and before people mention what Venom does, Bane beat his addiction after his defeat at the hands of Valley realizing that Venom was the reason for his defeat. Bane was fucking smart like Kahn and now they are both mindless brutes. It’s kinda a problem when the best representation for Bane is Arkham Origins because despite being a semi assistant to Joker, he did more work than any of the hyped up villains, he deduced Bruce’s identity, nearly kicked his ass during their fight in the Royal Hotel and called his men to help him making Batman feel overwhelmed for the first time, took advantage of Firefly attacking the Gotham Pioneers Bridge to go to Wayne Manor destroyed the bat cave and brutalized Alfred near death making Wayne feel spiritually broken for a while. See how similar Kahn and Bane are, both were smart and tactical with strength at their side which made them a big threat to the hero(forcing Valley to not go after Bane) and now they are reduced to a mindless brute willing to do a villains bidding #JusticeForBane #JusticeForShaoKahn
Bane used to be that guy, but now general audiences only know him as "That guy who broke Batman's back once." And in games like Injustice, he keeps bringing it up which makes him seem less cool. Like that's his peak moment, the only credit to his name. Sometimes he ends up sounding pathetic in voice lines. Bane: "I broke the bat, you have no hope." Literally any metahuman character: "Are you sure about that?"
Junior Junior but anyways they use that feat as just oh he crippled Batman that’s all he does when he actually broke Batman, the line “break the bat” means more than just he crippled him, he spiritually and mentally broke Batman . The fact that Bruce didn’t want to be Batman even after defeating Valley and the fact that it took him a while to get his spirit back relying on Lady Shiva to help him get his spirit back. Bane broke more than just his spine he broke Batman’s spirit
@@magikplissken3158 Yeah, that was cool. But the more that moment is referenced, the less cool it becomes. Now Bane seems less capable since crippling a (very capable) mortal man is seen as such a high accomplishment to him. It limits him, Joker has done so many things to Batman and his allies. He only brags to push buttons but isn't stuck in past acts. Bane reduces all his cunning whenever he highlights that he broke Batman's back. He should mention how he found out Bruce's identity or manipulated Gotham to weaken him. Focus on that, the more he mentions the one physical act, the more he comes off as a dumb brute that go lucky.
Junior Junior Yea they just need better line work for Bane, maybe add more about how he outsmarts his opponents. The thing I also hate about Bane now is how he’s a trope too for big threat to Batman like Doomsday. In Gotham Bane is just King Snake(Bane’s dad), literally King Snake if they decided to give him Venom. That kinda diminishes Bane even more as a character since he’s just there to be a big threat to Batman. But back to the Injustice thing, they could’ve made him the leader of the Leigon of Doom, Bane rounding up villains isn’t new since he’s worked with Ra’s Al Ghul before and others. He can lead a squad too I forgot what it was but he lead a squad with Vandal Savage’s daughter but he served well
True but then again he also has to share it so technically the only confirmed win he had was lui Kang. So in total his record in MK11 is potentially 1-3 if we are being fair.
Na I rather not play as a dumb brute his plan sucked he didn't side with kronika to back stab he just trusted shang tsung who backstabbed him also his redesign to can't even keep it consistent with the mk9 design which is better
@@chadpeterson5698 Kotal Kahn and Shao Kahn had it way more worse, in terms of ruination, then Sindel Shao Kahn: guy was not only strong but he was also ridiculously smart in the original timeline. He prepped a clone in DA just to make sure he doesn’t get killed by ST and QC. He managed to get mileena on his side without any effort at all. Waited for someone else to take down Onaga because he was OP as fuck. He also predicted betrayal from a mile away from ST. He also conquered many realms as well. To show that he actually had brains, Shao Kahn made a plan to use Shang Tsing as a baby in order to deceive Jerrod and attack him from behind bcoz he was too strong and it worked (mk2 Malibu comics) giving both Jerrod and Shao credibility. In the new timeline, he’s just a dumb brute. He lets liu kang free kitana without any consequences and all his plans go to quan chi. At least, he went out like a badass even though I was pissed on how they downplayed raiden. (U could have raiden defeat with his own power then have elder gods take his soul). In mk11, they buried him. He’s a major dumbass and loses to kitana due to plot. Aftermath treats him worse as they basically gave him a personality of 13yr old Tik Tok simp who is basically an attack dog. He doesn’t even sus out thotdel for her evil plans to make him his bitch (mk11 Sindel ending). Worst of all, people say they did him justice but he doesn’t have any official wins bcoz he has to share his chapter with someone else and then he goes out like a bitch to Shang tsung. Sindel’s retcon takes a giant shit on him as Edenia was hand given to him and the plan to deceive jerrod using a baby to stab Jerrod in the bank is no longer his which breaks power scaling to another level. He has no major achievements in this timeline. I would be fine with him defeating liu kang if they stated that he used the power from the soul chamber to buff him. Shao doesn’t even need help from thotdel as he can easily use soul majic to steal the two shokans souls and heal his eyesight. And why is he protrayed as a loving individual? After mk3, he gave no fucks for Sindel and he even batted her out in armegeddon( score pn’s video). He even gave her soul away to quan chi in mk9 so why does he care for her, not to mention we are literally past the mk3 section of the new timeline. If this was the OG version, he would’ve killed thotdel the moment he sused her out on her evil plan. Shao in this timeline is protrayed as a dumb, weak individual who needs help from other individual to get what he wants and he’s a massive attack dog to others with a personality of a Charlie d’amelio toxic fan Kotal Kahn: dude was a badass in the comics from burning rain, killling goro and gorbak, forcing reiko to use blood magic daggers to take him on and Shao Kahn actually recognising him as threat, leading him to be locked up in the flesh pits. Hell,havik had to use him so he can plan his chaos across all the realms. They also showed his more honourable side here than in the games. Mkx goes off with a amazing start with the character with him stopping the rebellion and having him defeat rain, Tanya, mileena, Kano and manages to hold off shinnok’s amulet when mileena’s holding out with his own power with the sun and survives. The moment his chapter is gone, he loses every fight, starting off with Kung Jin who is nothing like liu kang in terms of power and skill, they should have had kotal Kahn fake the loss and have him beat up Kung Jin but also respect him for having heart thus accepting the agreement...but nooo, they have to have a guy who is a fucking sun god and master of blood magic lose to a gay guy. Then he loses to jacqui. Then he loses his entire character about being the noble emperor due to the fact that he wants to appease Shinnok, the literal elder god of death who wants every realm burnt to the fucking ground just to fortify outworld’s defences for a stupid fucking reason. Mk11, same thing. Starts off very well with him beating skarlet, baraka, erron and able to knock down Shao for a while which is a huge benefit to kotal Kahn as it shows why kotal is locked up. The moment it is outside his chapter, he loses every fight. Worst of all losing to jade and why tf does he have a relationship with her when they never had any sort of interactions in previous games. Like Shao Kahn, it also makes him a braindead simp which basically his strong aspect of the character to being some stupid romantic type of character. He is also racist to Tarkatans which is not his character since he is meant to be a honourable and noble emperor. In Aftermath, he loses are justified while still bs as he is injured and not fully recovered. However, he is able to fight on the ship. What the fuck? He should be recovering and healing. They also don’t showcase his sun god abilities and his blood magic abilities and the same also applies to shao. He lasts only ten seconds with Shao Kahn before he gets beheaded by him. Wtf was the point of locking him up bcoz he was threat to SK? At least, have him severely injure SK before dying to show he is competent outside his chapter. He fucking knocked down SK ffs. They even retconned the fact that he tried to kill the kombat kids and said he was allies with them when he clearly wasn’t. At least, his gf(past jade) is alive and knocked out and he got a decent send off with a strong opponent, Shao Kahn, who shouldn’t need to break power scaling in order to win( cough cough heras and liu kang), killing him. Doesn’t change the fact that he lost in his own trailer If they r gonna fix both Kahn’s, get rid of the stupid relationships since it makes them look like incompetent braindead simps who can’t do anything on their own. For SK, if ur gonna do a relationship with him, u could have him expand his relationship with mileena or u could create a new character with a gold-digging power loving thot instead of butchering other characters who have established lore which they could’ve done if it weren’t for robocop. For KK, if ur gonna do a relationship for him, have it make sense and give it some sort of build up. Also, fix the fucking power scaling for these two so they can acc feel like powerful Kahn’s again. I personally feel that if a ruler is not in a relationship, it makes them more independent and badass, but that is my opinion Update: Shao Kahn has confirmed to win the fight against Kung Lao in rain and Kung Lao interaction dialogue which is better bcoz if thotdel did it, it would have broken power scaling by a landslide considering Kung Lao beat the alliance of Shang Tsung and Quan chi (apparently,thotdel’s murderer) who managed to kill clone Shao Kahn and liu kang
@@WinterburnVideos he also had the shit beaten out of him by the MK equivalent of Red Shirts in the form of Tarkatans’, so yeah even in Aftermath he’s still a loser.
honestly just had the thought of that idea Snake had of Kahn sending Kitana off when he "learns" of Milena(spelling), but with him acting all scary and threatening to the point Shang genuinely looks terrified if dying until Kitana leaves and he immediately smirks and goes "well done sorcerer." Would be a pretty cool scene
When I was little back in 95 Kahn was so fearsome that even his character select icon was intimidating to me. Nowadays, he feels like Megatron but the one after the 2007 movie. Ugh.
6:03 He could have said "Kitana my daughter I did not order this sorcerer to create a clone of you. He must be planning to use it to betray me" to make her think he had nothing to do with it.
It was most likley a design choice in order to fit the more realistic artstyle (which is excesive by the way the character models use more vertices and polygons than needed, they should have stayed with mkx art style it used mid poly character models which in turn cut down on development time.)
It would've been so cool if Reiko was actually Shao Kahn himself since not many had seen him without his helmet. Or he learned magic to save himself if he were to die, but the cost is the loss of his powers and he reverts to a younger and weaker self. Also, Reiko's crude hammer is a sealed version of Shao Kahn's wrath hammer. Making Reiko as Shao Kahn's weakened self would make him a better character. Because from that point on he has a story of rising again. This time, he had to take down Onaga, who knew Shao since he was young and thus, he had to hide and use allies to create a rebellion. He would then work with Shujinko to defeat Onaga, and later steal the dragon king's powers.
There was one smart thing MK9 Kahn thought of. Acquiring and training his forces in earth realm weapons so they are on equal footing when the invasion started.
Can you imagine Netherrealm's Shao Kahn taking the time to slowly *POISON* Onaga? He would've simply fought him because he's dumb and brutish. But the old Shao was actually smart and conniving.
If nrs were to interpret it, shao kahn poisoning onaga would be shao kahn going in the forest and finding "apple juice" in the middle of the forest on a stump and doesn't think twice before giving it to onaga and accidently poisons onaga and label falls of revealing that quan chi made the poison and left it in the forest so events would play out cause we all know quan chi is the ultimate mastermind according to nrs
Netherrealm would retcon it to be like that even though Shao Kahn was evil before Shinnok fell from grace and before Quan Chi actually had influence on anything.
Jade: That Kronika chose you speaks volumes. Shao Kahn: She'd have won had she heeded me! Jade: what do you know of victor Shao Kahn? Shao Kahn: ... i dunno ask your Realm
0:50 Sindel going from a good queen brainwashed by Shao Kahn into being his wife, is freed after Liu Kang beat him in MK 3 and trying to free Edenia to evil, having her own free will and in love with him sucked.
Watching this video actually makes me want to write my own villain who's big and powerfull but also intelligent and cunning. Really cool consept for villain that combines the best aspects of the dumb brute and the weak mastermind.
The one thing that really caught me by surprise was that Shao Kahn was not only the final boss in MKII and MK3/Ultimate MK3 but he was also the freaking announcer during all those matches. For those that never reach him in those games would had never knew that.
I thought I was the only one who thought this . Kahn ended up being just another cast member instead of being the dominant embodiment of power and knowledge. People got upset when I said something similar to this.. MK has gone to far the rabbit hole and changing the story so much it gets distorted.. they don’t know whether or not to follow the comic book or the story line from the previous game. Idk MK to me is Meh...!! Not like how it was in the 90’s the story line is ridiculous and it keeps changing so much it gives me Whiplash, it’ll stay consistent for a couple games then switch. Idk bout this new MK now scorpion and subzero are tag team partners and frost is robotic idk to each there own.. nice video though much respect ✊🏽 keeping it real.
They ruined him in MK11, he’s my favorite character and they wrote him so so poorly. He was THE main mk antagonist and they reduced him to nothing but a minor side villain defeated by kitana, terrible writing
@@chadpeterson5698 Because you're playing as him and at the end of this, it accomplishes nothing. He didn't even kill the supposed champion or the Edenian's princess.
It sounds awful! And what's worse, I feel like it was a conscious decision by the creative team to make him sound more like Donald Trump - cause that's funny, I guess... :|
"What do you know of victory, Shao Khan?" Shao Khan, who won 9 straight Mortal Kombat tournaments and conquered hundreds, if not thousands of worlds, absorbing trillions of souls:
Remember when a whole season of DBZ focused on how powerful Frieza was and ended with his defeat, only to have him return even stronger, just to get dunked on by Trunks? They explained why that happened. Remember when the whole plot of MK9 focused on how powerful shao kahn was and ended with his defeat, only to have him return in a time merger, just get dunked on by Kitana? They... they didn't really explain that, no.
The saddest thing about the Midway era is unless you read up on the lore through character descriptions and watched the endings you wouldn't know about any of those back stories. The campaign of the old games had zero plot and the later ones only let you play as one guy in Konquest.
I found him much more intimidating in MK: Conquest. I get that opinions on that show can be pretty divisive, but I found Jeffery Meek's portrayal to be top-notch. His Shao Kahn was equal parts brutal and scheming, and while I disagreed with how they handled his and Kitana's subplot, overall he was one of the best parts of that show. Soft-spoken, confident villains are far more threatening than screaming, arrogant ones.
I dig that show. Sure it was cheesy but it took its premise seriously and played it straight. It did good with Shang Tsung and Quan Chi too for my money...
the crazy part is that in my most recent lets play of mk 11 the most recent episode as of today, i actually mentioned just how less intimidating shao kahn is by the time of mk11. he's not all that threatening in the grand scheme of things and thats really just a shame considering he was such a cool character once upon a time
@@chadpeterson5698 it is and it isnt. At some point me and my friends plan to Revisit and talk about it on my channel. If you wanna subscribe to hear our thoughts you can, mate. (Obviously not here to pull from 4thsnakes viewers tho)
Watching videos like these always reminds me of the usual response I get from others; stories in fighting games NEVER turn out well. Not my words, just what I keep getting told.
These were all good beautiful days we were complaining MK9 and MK11's Shao Kahn.... Just wait for MK1.... He turned into biggest jobber ever in MK History... imagine even Reptile defeats him in his chapter...
I come back to this video every once and awhile to prove that fighting game developers are selling out their franchises best aspects and pretending like they arent doing it.
This is so true! Before...it really was only Liu that could defeat Khan. This made sense because Liu is incredibly powerful. Only other super super powerful people could even THINK to challenge Khan. Yet boom, now...Kotal and Kitanna can go toe to toe with him...even having Kitana trash him and humiliate him like hes a scrub. Now...i know why they did this. Tho i wont say what that is...because a look at the dialogue and actions of the characters in 11 says all you need to know. Its just sad.
*You know, it's a little weird how they made it so the name "Kahn" is a term for Outworld emperor because now it feels like I should be calling him "Shao" for short and that just feels awkward. *It was always easy for me to forget that Shao Kahn is a skilled sorcerer in his own right which is easy due to the gameplay and even the story to an extent focusing so much on his brute strength. *Didn't Deception also suggest Kahn is some kind of god too? There's some hidden message about him being the same race as Raiden and Shinnok which may or may not be a reference to them being family in Annihilation. But that seems inconsistent with him being an adviser to Onaga. *As for Kitana beating him.... I suppose there are worse options. She is one of the few characters for whom it would be emotionally satisfying and the divine heritage of the Edenians (which admittedly doesn't get nearly enough importance with how often they lose) should make her a powerful enough enemy to take him down. Here's how I'd have done it: One theory I have is that Tanya's powers are lost Edenian magic that no one else quite understands. After forming a reluctant alliance with her, Kitana, Jade and Sindel start to learn more about the forgotten mystic arts of their realm. They come to the conclusion that the powers they possess were bestowed/taught to them by Shao Kahn in the event that he'd be familiar with them in the event they turned him. Tanya shows them the books on Edenian magic she has preserved so when they confront Kahn next they are ready. One thing that DOA6 did that I liked was that in the final battle with Raidou in story mode you can choose between Kasumi, Hayate and Ayane to fight him. I'd do something similar with the Edenian trio but with the option of switching between characters during the fight.
Please do an episode on Goro. Goro has always been one of my favorite MK characters. Especially once he stepped into more neutral alignment territory after he was shown to be willing to work with Kitana. But no. Netherrealm made Goro, the nine time champion of Mortal Kombat, into a jobber. I'd really like to hear some of your thoughts about what they could have done with him.
Seriously been watching these for ages now and with your sheer knowledge of the lore and history of the entire franchise, you should be at least consulted when they start storyboarding Mortal Kombat 12. Keep up the great work buddy 👌
So basically Shao Kahn became like new 52 Darkseid. Went from a badass and cunning villain to a big brute guy for the heroes to punch
@Irfan Alddin Not to mention, despite Shao Khan's flaws in the reboot, at least he wasn't beat up in the first minutes of the game by Johnny Cage, unlike Shinnok, which diminish him as threat.
@Irfan Alddin True, not to mention that the game would end with another reboot, which means it didn't matter who lived or died. In the end of the day, all the character would be erased by the restart of the universe. The creators could easly had Shao Khan killing everyone on screem and without any problem.
@Irfan Alddin They could even redeem Shao Khan even more as villain by having him be responsible for turning Sindel evil again. Rather then using that stupidy retcon of Sindel always been evil, the creator could had Shang Tsung working with Shao Khan to brainwash her again in the middle of the game, while the heroes were distracted. Then he would use Sindel to escape and kill the other heroes and after that kill Sindel, leaving him and Shang Tsung as the only fighters to battle Kronika. That would not only fix Sindel's story in MK 11 but also showcase Shao Khan been not just a strong badass but also a smart and cunning villain.
At least darkseid got some good stories in elseworlds. Like that one where he conquered Earth and nobody could do shit about it.
I kinda felt his origin in the new 52 was kinda like god of war and i do think having him and highfather related kinda works as it gives Highfather more of a reason to be hard on Orion to not let his nephew follow the same path as his in law
I think it's safe to say that midway Shao Kahn's most evil act, Was causing the creation of the netherrealm era.
He even butchered his character, showing how far he’ll go to he evil
He even influenced his netherrealm self to retcon Sindel to be evil the whole time. Truly, one of the evilest man to ever live
“Midway good nether realm bad am i right guys”🤓
@@Sc0musiqyes
@@Sc0musiqlol
Shao Kahn, From one of most notorious quarter thieves in gaming history to a Phase 2 MCU villain.
oh god he even has Ronan's hammer
@OfficialRonin villains
@OfficialRonin then remind me about Ronan's motivation or interesting personality traits.
@OfficialRonin Name the leader of Hydra without googling.
@@DoihaDX but Shao Kahn unless it's MK11 Shao Kahn would kick Ronan to the curb
remember when Shao Kahn had an actual personality with pros and cons? remember how he was physically strong and cunning at the same time? forget it, now even Sub-Zero's side chick gets to mock him
sub zeros side chick?
@@rickgrimesdirtyondatass5672 yeah, Frost. Sub-Zero's main chick is Scorpion if you're wondering
@@bectip2229 hold up,wait a goddamn minute!.. Frost Is Sub-Zero’s Side-Chick????(Are You Mad??!) even though He ONLY ever saw and treated Her as a Daughter He never have
@@peanutslaughterisgreat retcons
@@peanutslaughterisgreat it's a joke
Shao Kahn was always my favorite. They did him dirty in MK11.
Shao Kahn is responsible for:
1. The rules of Mortal Kombat exist because of him.
2. He is the direct reason Shang Tsung, Mileena, Kitana, Sindel, Ermac, Skarlet, and the kollector are the way they are.
3. His victory over blaze in the final battle was the reason the whole timeline got reset.
3. He conqured Edenia, Brought the outworlders, tarkatans, shokan, and centaurs together under his banner.
4. Both the heroes and villians have to remove Kahn to be victorious.
5. He's not only one of the physically strongest characters in the lore but his knowledge and use of magic is unparralled.
(He taught Shang Tsung soul magic, and he created Skarlet and taught her Blood magic)
6. He Bested Raiden, a literal god, in every timeline they fought.
7. Bested Kotal Kahn in both confrontations, breaking his back during the second encounter.
8. Is apparently the only character outside of Raiden, Shinnok, and Cetrion(Gods), who knew who kronika was.
In MK 11, they neutered him hard. He loses his throne, gets ursurped by Kotal, gets killed by Kitana, and gets treated like a Thug by Kronika.
Every character in the games aside from maybe Kronika and Quan Chi, are reacting to the moves made by Kahn.
He is, the single most Important character in the series. He is the catalyst that drives the conflict forward.
Yeah but kotal Kahn sucks, everyone beats him. Still he’s done some very impressive stuff
Now serve me as we will kill earthrealm's allies. And who is Trump? All I know is Shao Khan!
I think he knew about Kronika because he was the god of Outworld or something
@@CandyJackalope yeah he was the guardian of outworld during onaga’s reign. Same way raiden (now lui Lang) is the guardian of earthrealm.
Not edenian 3 but the other third about Blaze, I wanna say If anything, He may have teamed with Dark raiden to fight Onaga AND THEN when Taven was winning with weapons to kill Blaze, They teamed up and Shao Kahn finally took his powers.
"Is a child's understanding of the character".
Say it louder for the people in the back, please! That sentence encapsulates my eternal frustration with modern storytelling, in any medium today. Most characters are one note jokes, and we fans are supposed to accept this.
@Dam Sen I did use the word "most". It's the first word in the last sentence of my comment.
If Shao Kahn in Mortal Kombat II is your idea of a profound, nuanced character, Tolstoy would make you explosively shit out of your mouth.
@@LAVATORR shut up redditor
@Damsen Kratos is one note. As all of God of war franchise.
@Damsen No, i am right. Kratos is a simple one dimensional character with no depth.
Oh, that "it's Jarrod's skull" twist is BRUTAL!
Thats messed up
@INFINITIVERSE OF SWAG the skull mask kitana wears.
Insanely so.
I have my own mortal combat RPG thing going right now and I'm going to use that because that is amazing!
But wasn't Jerrod turned into Ermac? Or was that just his soul?
For the longest time, I wanted Dark Raiden to be a final boss with an undead Liu Kang as a sub-boss. Show people what happens when Raiden doesn't hold back.
Bruh Dark Raiden vs Shao would be so fucking sick
@@ItsButterBean1020 what if Netherrealm did a spinoff game that reverses the positions of Raiden and Shao Kahn
@@chadpeterson5698 you mean where shao kahn is fighting raiden to protect outworld from dark raiden?
@@delta2372 yep
@@delta2372 Dark Raiden: today..i become THEE ELDER GOD!
Old Shao: "My people have spoken! And a king must, if only once every millennium or so, listen to the will of his people."
"Where are the Elder Gods, Raiden? Their pathetic Mortal Kombat shackles me no longer.They masquerade as dragons, but are mere toothless worms. My venom spreads, it is the end of all things... Armageddon. It is done... Your time has passed. Ages wasted in foolish resistance! Now is the dawn of my rule... Yes. Pray to the worms, Raiden, as your world ends."
Current Shao: *TRUMP MEME*
The frustrating part is, that second quote was Netherrealm. That was their writing. How did it go so wrong so quickly?
@@RasenKamehamehaX100 I honestly have no idea. Injustice 2 and 11 is where the garbage really piled on. I dunno if they brought in some massively incompetent writing staff there, or if the past was just a fluke.
Much as I dislike MKSM story, Shao Kahn was total badass in this game.
@@RasenKamehamehaX100
I'm assuming that many of the writers at Netherrealm greatly dislike Trump and decided to write him in Shao Kahn considering all he did was get his ass kicked in 11.
That’s so metal
Shao kahn, ladies and gentlemen. A complete shadow of his former self. Oh, my god. Ruining and destroying his character was a mistake. A very big mistake.
They're lucky he's not real.
Devin Waddell I agree.
Rasheed Shields that username was ruined and destroyed
They should have just left him out like Onaga, then brought him back (as the Badass we all loved growing up) in MK12.
Bee Mulu I agree, man. Could’ve been awesome if they saved him for the next game. But, no. Unfortunately, they failed to remain him a spectacular villain just like the older mk games. Missed opportunity.
Thank you for actually caring about the Lore unlike the developers. I’m a huge mortal kombat fan and one of my first ever memories of gaming was thinking it was impossible to best shao kahn on mk3 for the sega genesis. If kitana can beat shao kahn then what’s the point of i dont know, liu kang existing?
Damn you guys bitch about anything ? Everything needs to be ruined to add an original twist .
Proud Beaner nope, that’s some shitty writing
Kitana beat Shao Kahn because he was just normal
@@proudbeaner696 That's a stupid logic
@@proudbeaner696 Not always, Onaga was always a bigger threat then Shao Kahn and I can probably say even Shinnok who both were nothing to Onaga.
Okay at this point netherrealm Studios needs to hire the 4th snake he know what he talking about
They can't pay enough to him to restore MK to it's former glory
He speaks for the 90s kids the guys who grew up on quarter swallowing arcade cabinets the guys who spent $20 just to get dropped by khan in 30 seconds and hear hahaha I win
@@cameronjohnson9361 that was pathetic
he literally doesnt. just a fucking idiot with a youtube channel blabbering on about fucking nothing important.
@@boylial NRS apologist alert
5:26 That "but" timed with Shao Kahn's hand gesture. Good timing
Finally We got Shao Khan lol, they destroyed his role as a Kharacter.
Raikage757 Shao kahn was one of my favorite all time mortal kombat villain in history. He was awesome and more menacing. Especially intimidating. Now, he’s a complete shadow of his former self. Turned him into a complete joke. By the way, shao kahn’s death in mortal kombat 11 still gets me angry to this very day.
@@rasheedshields4716 so how did he escape onaga's grasp in Armageddon after being kicked? I though onaga ripped out his heart, arm n finished him while flying away with him. To be honest, onaga should be the one beating Raiden to death.
Rasheed Shields what you don’t like kitana? No female WOKENESS for you
@@dayksteveforrealz4038 wtf are you on about? He might like kitana you never know. What he was trying to say is shao kahns death was crap and that kitana would never have a chance against kahn.
When will you learn!? Sure buddy so your butthurt that a character gets a upgrade basically?
In the 2nd and 3d games all we had to go off of was this iconic voice. he watched and enjoyed fights, laughed when something amused him and would even compliment something impressive. You always felt like this guy was incredibly powerful and in control of everything. And the crowd cheered for him at the arena when he beat your ass. A charismatic ruler who knew how to hold his (presumably) gigantic empire together, despite many realms not liking being subjugated. Beating Kahn never felt like you've just beat a bodybuilder. It was like toppling a mountain.
I've always loved Jeff Meek's portrayal of Khan in "Conquest". Imposing, powerful, scheming and intolerant to failures. He made some of the most awful writing there kinda work.
Twice as amazing since he also was playing Raiden..
“How dare you beg for death?!!”
And it sucked that even his portrayal couldn’t escape the bad writing, as they always made Khan look like an idiot who didn’t even know that Shang Tsung was killing his spies in his own prison.
Shao Kahn: "Join me, and conquer realms!"
Noob: "Name *one* realm you control..."
Shao Kahn: "Sharp tongue for a dead man!"
I *really* enjoyed this video. It brilliantly puts to light how much of a shadow of his former self Shao Kahn has become.
He went from losing to Liu Kang and an Elder god powered Raiden to losing to Kotal Khan and Kitana
Kotal couldn't beat Jin who couldn't beat Sub-Zero (not to low ball Sub-Zero) and Sub-Zero can't beat anyone who isn't a jobber or some who is important.
Kitana lost a 10 v 1 fight againist a Shang Tsung powered Sindel.
WTF
@Patrick Bateman nah man for Kitana it wasn't even love.
Maybe for Kotal cause Jade was there.
But Kitana just hated his guts.
@@sergoldenhandthejust1495 only after you use Kotal to beat him causing him to run away
@@sergoldenhandthejust1495 plus if intros are anything to go by Kotal makes a full recovery
I was OK with them having Kitana beat Shao Kahn. Liu Kang always made less sense to me. She's got thousands of years or so of fight experience. He's a talented Shaolin but he's probably been training for 20-30 years vs her centuries. Shao Khan same thing. Having said that, having her win after Sindel did that 10 v 1 thing was ridiculous. For anyone to win after that kinda would be. Except someone exceptionally powerful like Raiden. I get Liu Kang is pretty much the most powerful but I never really get why, other then he's sorta the poster boy.
Shao Khan beat Kotal later, so I think they tried to play them up as equals. Which is still a downgrade for Shao Khan.
Isn't it weird that people still call him Shao Kahn in MK11 despite him not being Kahn anymore?
He was a Kahn in the past, now he is nothing technically. But he just breaks Kotal's spine sooo
Kahn is in his Actual name since Onaga called him this during his rule as well as Raiden and the elder gods even in the new timeline stating when Shao Kahn usurped the throne
So just...shao?
he's Past Shao Kahn. the sole reason he faught Kotal was because he learned he took on the title Kahn.
not happening if Shao is alive.
@@Ravathiel Past Shao Kahn is at least Raiden tier in terms of strength Kotal should have lost that from the get go this story sucks
That Jade thug life meme. I wasn't ready. 🤣
Shao Kahn: "She'd have won, had she heeded me."
Jade: "What do you know about victory, Shao Kahn?"
_DAMN._
Burns more than scorpion's village
"Bitch it took the elder gods to stop me, who are you?"
He did won in the original time line, before Raiden started to cheat...
How many realms did he conquer?
That's Shao Trump, that's Jade talking to, and not Shao Kahn.
If you use the Johnny Cage announcer voice, one of his nicknames for Shao Kahn is "Stock Villain"
Even NRS knows about it.
This whole scenario reminds me of pushing superstars in pro wrestling. It’s quite intriguing. Well done.
It's a solid representation of the whole thing, yes. The whole NRS situation does kind of remind me of the WWE not too long ago having a hard time writing new wrestlers into stardom/getting the most out of their ageing upper core while also having a disconnect with fans. At least, NRS has the solace that their games play fine and whatnot.
Thun Fish Wait...
An intelligent strongman with abilities beyond his size pushed to dumb himself down to fit a certain set of criteria...
I dunno if I'm thinking about George Steele or Paul Wight's early years as "The Giant."
Remember this Shao Kahn quote from one of Snake's other videos: It's official: I suck.
The Mortal kombat conquest did a better portrayal of shao khan than NRS lol
There were scenes that basically made it pretty easy to assert his dominance in. Though it had the same problems of just having him sitting on his throne, being an idiot, and continuity errors, but actor, Jeffrey Meek did a cool job playing him and Raiden nonetheless
@@TheKpa11 i like him because he ID threatening without acting and talking like a brute...
I like villains that can contain their villainy..yiu know what i mean?
glorilol 95 well I wouldn’t say he contained his villainy, the voice actor had him speak in a pretty deep voice casually, then when he lost his temper he makes his voice bark and he screams. He does have some presence, but that’s due to his position in the lore of MK, you just had to accept he was the big bad ruler who had power to assert himself when he needed to, which was rare.
I love how he was actually imposing in that show.
glorilol 95 he was actually pretty solid in that show tho
Man deadass won
Dark Raiden should have had his role in MK11
He should have stayed in the story even after his past self appeared.
Exactly! He was set up at the end of MKX so well only to get literally deleted after the 1st chapter of the next game... What was even the point?
I have a feeling the plot should have been quite different from what we've got. They teased Raiden as a new antagonist and hinted at Tsung's participance back in MKX but none of it happened. Dark Raiden could have been so cool, he could enforce his opinions on Earth's governments, try to control Special Forces to assault the Outerworld. He could be Earthrealm's version of Shao Kahn and it would have been sad to finish him off because of his long story as a protector of humanity, a hero, a good friend. But hell, yeah, let's instead have bald plain villainess whom will never see again as our antagonist, who has no backstory at all, jump in, say: "OMEGALUL" and ruin everything.
Bogdan Lin I just hope they get back on track with the next game and HOPEFULLY have similar events to MK Deception, like how MKX was similar to MK4
Past vs Future. Light Raiden vs Dark Raiden. By the end Light Raiden would come to realise there is a point where you go too far even if it is for the protection of Earthrealm.
It writes itself! How could they miss such an easy opportunity!!!
This kind of reminds me how Euron Greyjoy was adapted from a Song of Ice of Fire into Game of Thrones. In the books he's a mysterious Pirate Warlord who may or may not be working for a Lovecraftian Old God that gives him special necromantic powers. He's so ruthless that he cuts the tongues of his own crew members so they don't reveal any of his secrets and he possesses spells to bend even Dragons to his will, not to mention... implied Krakens he's luring to the battlefield.
In the show he's just some brute Cersei gets to work for her because he wants to get laid.
Talk about underwhelming :/
I could’ve lived with show euron if they just added some of the mystical shit even just guiding a kraken back to fight Danny would’ve been good enough
i didn't knew this and i am now very disappointed
Euron is like old Shao Kahn, Emperor Palatinate and Griffith.
I just wish they'd added Victarion and fAegon because they are very cool characters.
Show Euron basically has two lines: BIG COCK and A FINGER IN THE BUM.
"Oh BTW this skull is Jerrod's"
Khan: :)
Kitana: D:
Nether realm timeline: Dumb Brute with no personality
Original timeline: Whole fuck ton of plot armor
And, there we go. The cherry on the shit cake that is the Netherrealm timeline. The absolute butchering of Shao Kahn's character. No longer is he a powerful, but also cunning villain feared by everyone and nigh unbeatable (I quote "You plan to defeat Shao Kahn? Whole realms have tried to overthrow him!"), now he's just an absolute joke, a meathead with no brain power whatsoever who reveals his plans on a whim (at least plans that did remain his and weren't handed over to fucking Quan Chi) to his own detriment and loses to everyone he fights, even to fucking KITANA, who no matter how you try to twist it would never be able to defeat Shao Kahn in a direct fight. Not to mention the stupid parallels they try to draw to Donald Trump with him because "orange man bad" and "Shao Kahn bad"
Netherrealm Studios is a fucking joke. Absolutely no one there understands Mortal Kombat and its lore and I believe they have no desire to learn it and do the series justice, they seem all too content to shit on the entire series and anyone who's truly a fan of it as their white knights try to deflect any and all rightful criticism thrown their way. And Ed himself seems content to just sit back and watch his series burn because of them
And the sad thing is, I still really have a passion for Mortal Kombat. I grew up with it, I remember just how great it used to be, how well written the story and characters were even if it wasn't perfect and not all the characters reached their true full potential. To see the series I'm so passionate about get so butchered, so disrespected by those asshats at Netherrealm Studios who think they know the series better than us when they probably haven't even been alive longer than most of us have been fans of MK just absolutely pisses me off. The day Netherrealm Studios burns will be a damn good day, and I can only hope that when they do burn, Mortal Kombat will land in the hands of someone who will actually show it and its characters the respect they're not only due, but deserve
Amen
Im curious about your opinion on the Tekken franchise, because i sincerely believe that franchise jumped the shark, especially on the character storylines because other than the main characters, the others are given no context.
Tekken 7 is a joke to me, and no amount of spectacular gameplay will change that to me.
Sorry for my rant, but many fighting games are empty husks of their former selves.
Ed is just there to collect the check.
And they pretty much just reboot the history to the beginning of times because they want to start from scratch, except of course they will sell us the characters we like as DLC, because not only did they ruin characters and story, they turned MK on a money grabbing joke.
The sad part is Ed Boone is still around. He could have fixed all this mess.
@@vilkopoljak7370 Tekken's story was pushed to the side with tekken 5 (effectively a tekken tag 1 update in terms of character models). All the characters you saw had very little connection to why they are there. Paul wanted to fight Kazuya (when in T4 he wanted to prove he was the greatest like he claimed after T3), instead he was defeated by Kuma and turned into Tekken's version of Dan Hibiki (despite his shortcomings prior to T3, he still held his own in terms of his personality rather than a walking playback machine), constantly espousing his greatness to everyone. Since than the tekken series started to treat its writing with less interest, turning the series into merely another title at evo. Tekken 7 is the last straw in this topic, what with bringing Akuma to the story, removing much of the classic cast and trying very hard to capture the serious tone of T4 (without the seriousness that defined that game or its depth).
I prefer Onaga, but they did do Shao Kahn dirty. He came off as more of a brute with strong magic compared to the Emperor who made plains and could outsmart his enemies. If I remember correctly the reason he had the Shokan, Tarkata and Centar competing for his favor wasnt just for sport. He did it to keep each faction busy and to prevent tbeir number from getting to big to be a threat to his reign.
"Magic"? The only thing he does is swinging that hammer of his, fucking Quan Chi is the one doing all the magic...I remember in the old timeline how it was Shao Khan who tough SHANG freaking TSUNG magic.
Actually Onaga is highly intelligent. Remeber Mk deception's Konquest where he tricked Shujinko.
@@Tyrik73 I know I was describing the current Shao Kahn as a brute. Onaga is my favorite villain but I'm terrified if NRS ever decided to bring him back
@@Jrockk999 True. They may butcher Onaga as well.
Tyrik Flood-Feaster they already did remember when fucking kitana said “I do not fear the dragon king”
Original Shao kahn: Thanos with infinity gauntlet
Current shao kahn: Thanos copter with Thanos clone
...who says "DRAT!" ...then the regular, human police arrest him... (look it up. That *_actually_* happened)
The development of MK11:
MK Fans: Dude we like that character
NRS: Yeah, about that.
It honestly feels like they made MK11 out of spite for the fanbase because they couldn't immediately work on Injustice 3 or something.
Monkey Bone my theory is that they realized how badly they fucked up MK lore and just decided to scramble together an ending to the new trilogy, giving a flimsy excuse for all the contradictions and plotholes in the form of Kronika and resetting the universe again to make a more cohesive story in MK 12. Although that may be wishful thinking on my part
@@theoverlord3937 there is lore?
This aged well because shao khan is a brute now in liu’s timeline 😭
11:50 "He'll probably be the brute enforcer..."
MK1: "General Shao!"
Hahaha no ive see more of him being slapped around like a battered house wife then anything all he's missing in the new one is tears and a bitchy little cry while running away flapping his hands at the wrist.
This vid aged like fine wine considering General Shao is a fckin JOBBER
Damn, your re-write to the story is so good. Love the idea of Khan being plucked out of a timeline where he was about to win.
WAIT!! Is it just me or are they making Kotal-Kahn sound like a good guy version of OG Shao-Kahn.
Both are well respected warriors who served under there respective rulers, as a second or third in command.
Both were supposed to be incredibly intelligent leaders, that are very cunning
Both use a combination of dark(blood) magic and brute strength to fight.
Both use a blunt object as there main weapon( mace and a hammer)
Both hated there respected rulers
Both wear an elaborate head gear
Both were forming alliances while under there ruler, which is what ultimately led to them becoming kahn
Both are exceptionally tall, shirtless, macho, aggressive(mk10 Kotal), Tyrannical(mk10 Kotal), and married or banging an Edenian of high regard.
The funny thing is that Kotal in MKX is a joke. He loses to fkin Jin and only beats jobbers like Kano and the he puts the "kombat kids" into prison because "eArThReAlM cAn'T KeEp ThE aMuLeT sAfE" this could have lead into a war, but yeah, he is a competent ruler for sure. He is just not that violent, but that's all..oh wait, he would have killed all the tarkatans in MK11 Whoops
@@herbalyzoltan409 The only good thing to come out of the new series is Barakas character "arc", they still did my boi reptile a dirty though >:(
@@herbalyzoltan409 They did Kotal dirty in that aspect, but what I feel most people don't understand about Kotal's decision to imprison the kombat kids is that the shinnok's amulet couldn't be kept in outworld because Mileena would get to it. Sonya chooses to guard it and Kotal lets her, only for Kotal to see later on that mileena has the amulet and that it's obvious that earthrealm fucked up in keeping it locked up. So when Mileena is captured and killed and the civil war is ended, Cassie goes "lol time to take this home". Kotal stops the kids because Quan Chi needs to get the amulet to free Shinnok so it'd be better to keep it in outworld where Quan chi isn't. His capturing of the kids was in case Raiden was going to pitch a fit over it. Moreso, the whole reason a fight took place between Kotal and Jin was because a commoner was going to be executed for stealing food (in a time of war where rations are in short supply), yet when the kids are imprisoned he *gives them food and water.* Had the kombat kids NOT broken jail, Reptile, Ermac, and Erron Black would have found them still in their cells even though D'vorah turned traitor and would be able to put two and two together to figure out that they aren't with her. Kotal's decision to capture the kombat kids when he invades earthrealm is also logical since Shinnok has consumed Earthrealm's Jinsei and he wanted a bargaining chip to pretend to be Shinnok's ally so that he would have time to defeat shinnok on his terms.
Which makes me really curious as to how Shao Kahn would have gone about dealing with Shinnok... Pre NRS Shao Kahn, that is.
@@herbalyzoltan409 kotal is a joke. After the aftermath I think I can respect kotal at all
@Bunyamin Esen The question is how he would do that. Would he kill him? Would he imprison him? What would Shao Kahn ACTUALLY do?
Shao Kahn is the greatest MK villain and screw him over like they did Shinnok. NRS should hire better writers.
At least Shinnok had a reason why he was easily defeated by Johnny and Cassie Cage and that is that the green halo is Anti God energy. Shao Kahn's defeat by Kitana's hands is inexcusable
@@chadpeterson5698 That Bullshit is just lazy writing.
Shinnok had presence and charisma in MKX. Yes, he was done dirty because NRS wanted Kombat Kids to be the stars, but at least they did good with his personality.
@@ShadowSumac Exactly. To Shinnok's credit, he was at least charming on-screen (and as easy he was in MK4, his end in that game in pretty nebulous all things considered... plus he was still entertaining...) and only got defeated by the script. Corrupted Shinnok should have a triple phase fight at least...
Shao Kahn however, Yeah the old one was damn cool and imposing and more than capable of long-term scheming. The new one is a side of beef with a hammer...
@@saidi7975 And apparently under the heel of Sindel who inexplicably has been retconned into being evil all along.
IDK, what current NRS writers smoke, when it comes to the old characters.
Shao Kahn Midway era = a seriously powerful and intelligent qonquerer of the dark arts that was feared by all of his followers and turned a Wasteland into a medieval empire and a Guy that can beat up a God and might be the protector God of outworld himself (there is proof) who only could be defeated by the strongest shaolin monk thanks to his arrogance. And killed the ancient dragon king Onaga poisoned (and maybe in battle)! And might i add had some of my favorite voice lines. And outsmarted the 'Elder Gods', (the justice league, the legion of doom from the dc crossover) and everyone in all of the realms!!
Shao Kahn netherrealm era = A dumb brute that never won a single fight! Who got defeated by one of the weakest canon characters in the series. And who follow everyone's orders who tell him they are unique strong beings. Hell if they wanted to bring him back in MKX as a revenant he wouldn't even needed to be brainwashed by Quan Chi and Shinnok!
Love you Midway Shao Kahn.
And fuck you netherrealm Shao Kahn!
Though he wasn't too bad in aftermath
@@ronanaxe2794 he was I couldn't watch it the boringness
Yeah forget mk11 he is trash there and does nothing while he does way more in mk9
@@Darth-vade123 i mean...in MK9 he snaps Kung Lao's neck
gets his shit rocked by Liu Kang
comes back
beats up Raiden
and then he dies
@@andreadebernardis4390 that's not all he does
Amazing how NRS cares so little about the characters of the very franchise that made them who they are. Unless your name is Scorpion.
H2ZV.1 he dies tho
They killed present!Scorpion by D'vorah, who they are pushing as the new hotness.
@@ShadowSumac when she is one of the worst video game characters of all time.
Some 3D Era MK characters had better writing than most characters of the NRS Era
Too bad they were despised because they were shit
@@dictatorbison2704 I liked Shujinko( Hes mks Goku) and Dairou , and Hotaru and Havik.
Tyrik Flood-Feaster What do you like about Dairou other than his somewhat interesting backstory?
Havik, Onaga, Shujinko, Ashrah, Hotaru, Blaze, Taven and Daegon were all pretty good in my opinion.
@@shadow-squid4872 His design looks cool and i like his foot in the back fatality.
Khan wouldn't even need to alter Kitanna's memories. he could just lie. something like: I was not your mother's first husband. Jerrod was abusive and she had two affairs. One with me and one with a Tarkatan warrior. Those affairs resulted in both your and mileenia's birth. however your sister's birth went wrong when Jerrod realized her betrayal and attacked them. Mileena nearly died and I ordered Shang Tsung to clone her a new body. So he finally succeeded, well done Sorceror.
That’s…… honestly a great idea for an adaptation for Shao Kahn. He keeps the real reason why Mileena was created hidden from Kitana, while also turning Kitana against her father by making Jerrod out to be a horrible person and awful person and make it seem Sindel only “chose” Kahn because he was a good and better partner for Sindel to have and actually treated Kitana like a daughter rather than a tool to use. And the Reason Sindel offed herself is because she was left scared and mortified by her “abusive relationship” with Jerrod and the memories were too much for her to handle.
@@zakeermcconnell388 And when Kitana learns the truth she feels terrible for wrongly despising Jerrod. It is such an easy lie that he should have said it. It's not's like Jerrod can contradict it.
This game (Among many games or shows I’ve played/seen/watched) seem to be afraid or don’t go far enough to use the “Loss/win thru attrition/fatigue” writing concept, that being that if you have a super powerful person, they should be defeated by being exhausted by having one or several opponents face the super strong dude at once or simply stall, in order to allow the idea that fatigue and prior damage has been accumulated, so it could be reasonable for weaker, but important characters to legitimately win.
This is mostly in anime and anime based games that messes this up the most as I’ve seen, and even in fighting games like Street Fighter
When MK first came out, I was young enough that I was banned from playing it by my grandmother and was only allowed to watch my older cousins and brother play it. Shao Kahn always stuck with me because he scared my younger self. As I got older, he became my favorite character BECAUSE he looked like a meathead, but was really a tactical genius. While I always gravitated to Liu Kang and Quan Chi as my mains, I liked Shao Kahn a fair bit more than either of them. And to see what NetherRealm has reduced him to has just been... tragic, to say the least.
He still has an enormous vocabulary, so it seems like at least one writer remembered that he was supposed to be smart.
@@jackalcoyote8777 Yeah, but it's too bad that he no longer has the air of a big boss character. I mean, this is the dude responsible for the downfall of Onaga.
Like, I headcanon that he poisoned Onaga for years to weaken him enough that he could kill him. Then after he "died", Shao Kahn framed Edenia as being the culprits and framed his invasion and subsequent conquest as revenge. This would then gain him the support, love, and loyalty of his people. In this headcanon, Shao Kahn uses his tactics, intelligence, and cunning to usurp power.
You'd almost think 4thSnake was getting ready to just make an independent MK game of his own at this point....👀
NRS don’t kno what they’re doing bring midway back
Midway also didn't knew what they were doing, thats why they went bankrupt lol
@@dictatorbison2704 Least in the story telling department they were more competent
@@Radio_CosmicRay Nope, they tried almost anything and it didn't made the story any better. The 90's MK was whacky, but at least told a better story
@@dictatorbison2704 No I'm compared it to the current era
@@Radio_CosmicRay Compared both are hit or miss. I personally loved the story of the reboot, and I also liked some of the subplots, like how Scorpion went from being an angry soul to form a bromance with Sub-Zero, and the introduction of new Characters like the Kombat Kids was interesting, as to show The Next Generation of new characters. MK11 was mostly weird and many times left scratching my head, but the ending just says "reeboot" of the story again. So I think MK12 will be more crazy, maybe they will include the concept of more crazy powerful beings, along with dimensions. It has a lot of potential TBH.
Sonya defeats Jade and Kitana at the same time. Later, Kitana defeats Shao Kahn LOL
11:50 well that’s partially right so far. He is a brute enforcer.
And the way they did Shao again in MK1 was just... WHY IS HE A FUCKING JOBBER?! Shao seemed to have actual character for the first time in a while, actually being loyal to Sindel and wanting what's best for outworld... Only to completely blindly trust a Shang Tsung who he doesn't even know beforehand in the new timeline. Even genuine idiots know you don't trust someone you don't know
Always thought it would be neat if Reiko was a magical clone of Shao Kahn, the way Meleena is a clone of Kitana, the clone would take his place if the current Shao ever died. This would both explain why Kahn can apparently come back from death and also gets rid of the Reiko character.
Id prefer if Reiko was his son. Whether from Sindel or not.
@@ShadowSumac well that would make Shao Kahn even more evil since he made a death threat to Reiko in Deception and killed him in Armegetton
@@chadpeterson5698 Well, Shao never was a good person.
@@ShadowSumac yeah he is number 5 in my top 5 most evil villains in Mortal Kombat beaten by Onaga, Shinnok, Kronika, and Shang Tsung in that order. That's right I just said that Shang Tsung is the most evil villain in Mortal Kombat and I don't give a flip about what anybody tries to say to make him seem less evil since you can't can't make him seem less evil since he is pure evil so much so that even Kronika is scared of him.
@@ShadowSumac why not both.
It's his son with the intention of being a new body if he dies. This would destroy Reiko's mind and replace him with Kahn.
Shao Khan: I cannot believe I'm saying this to a Earthrealmer, but thank you for opening up my eyes, I should put my act back together. Now if you please me, I'm about to take advantange of Sindel's new personality before she came back to her senses and decide to divorce me.
Wow that last line was pretty on the money wasnt it, it's a shame but he's literally general enforcer now.....
Holy shit Jade, you gotta fight the man BEFORE you kill him! XD
your prediction of mk1 couldnt be more precise
Shao Kahn reminds me of Bane, Bane when he first debuted was very smart and tactical, he broke out everyone from Arkham and Blackgate and tired out Batman for three months which gave him enough time to deduce Bruce Wayne being Batman and took advantage of him being weak. He kept being smart even when he fought Valley, such as run away so he can recharge on Venom and take advantage on the fact that the only power source Valley had was his gauntlets, and before people mention what Venom does, Bane beat his addiction after his defeat at the hands of Valley realizing that Venom was the reason for his defeat. Bane was fucking smart like Kahn and now they are both mindless brutes.
It’s kinda a problem when the best representation for Bane is Arkham Origins because despite being a semi assistant to Joker, he did more work than any of the hyped up villains, he deduced Bruce’s identity, nearly kicked his ass during their fight in the Royal Hotel and called his men to help him making Batman feel overwhelmed for the first time, took advantage of Firefly attacking the Gotham Pioneers Bridge to go to Wayne Manor destroyed the bat cave and brutalized Alfred near death making Wayne feel spiritually broken for a while.
See how similar Kahn and Bane are, both were smart and tactical with strength at their side which made them a big threat to the hero(forcing Valley to not go after Bane) and now they are reduced to a mindless brute willing to do a villains bidding
#JusticeForBane #JusticeForShaoKahn
Bane used to be that guy, but now general audiences only know him as "That guy who broke Batman's back once."
And in games like Injustice, he keeps bringing it up which makes him seem less cool. Like that's his peak moment, the only credit to his name.
Sometimes he ends up sounding pathetic in voice lines.
Bane: "I broke the bat, you have no hope."
Literally any metahuman character: "Are you sure about that?"
Junior Junior I think the only good Bane line I heard was in Doom, “First I broke the bat, now I break the man”
Junior Junior but anyways they use that feat as just oh he crippled Batman that’s all he does when he actually broke Batman, the line “break the bat” means more than just he crippled him, he spiritually and mentally broke Batman . The fact that Bruce didn’t want to be Batman even after defeating Valley and the fact that it took him a while to get his spirit back relying on Lady Shiva to help him get his spirit back. Bane broke more than just his spine he broke Batman’s spirit
@@magikplissken3158
Yeah, that was cool. But the more that moment is referenced, the less cool it becomes.
Now Bane seems less capable since crippling a (very capable) mortal man is seen as such a high accomplishment to him.
It limits him, Joker has done so many things to Batman and his allies. He only brags to push buttons but isn't stuck in past acts. Bane reduces all his cunning whenever he highlights that he broke Batman's back.
He should mention how he found out Bruce's identity or manipulated Gotham to weaken him. Focus on that, the more he mentions the one physical act, the more he comes off as a dumb brute that go lucky.
Junior Junior Yea they just need better line work for Bane, maybe add more about how he outsmarts his opponents. The thing I also hate about Bane now is how he’s a trope too for big threat to Batman like Doomsday. In Gotham Bane is just King Snake(Bane’s dad), literally King Snake if they decided to give him Venom. That kinda diminishes Bane even more as a character since he’s just there to be a big threat to Batman.
But back to the Injustice thing, they could’ve made him the leader of the Leigon of Doom, Bane rounding up villains isn’t new since he’s worked with Ra’s Al Ghul before and others. He can lead a squad too I forgot what it was but he lead a squad with Vandal Savage’s daughter but he served well
Disappointed that the video didn't end with " It's official, I suck ". Good video anyway
It almost makes you wish Kahn had a chapter to himself in MK11, taking out erron black (present) or fight against some people to lead into the fight
Shao Kahn does actually get a chapter in Aftermath but he beats Geras, Cassie Cage, Johnny Cage, Kung Lao, and Lui Kang. But loses to Shang Tsung
True but then again he also has to share it so technically the only confirmed win he had was lui Kang. So in total his record in MK11 is potentially 1-3 if we are being fair.
@@jamesaziz7004 but still beating Lui Kang is an achievement in among itself
Na I rather not play as a dumb brute his plan sucked he didn't side with kronika to back stab he just trusted shang tsung who backstabbed him also his redesign to can't even keep it consistent with the mk9 design which is better
That Jerrod skull thing is awesome
Indeed
Honestly I miss the old Shao Khan... It's much more satisfying to beat him than this imposter.
@Trevor Anthony and MK11 Shao Kahn is a jobber
Well until Aftermath where he is finally back to some of his former glory
@@chadpeterson5698 ah yes you mean sindel's play thing as well as completelly outplayed by shang tsung... yes... there's a lot of glory here
@@chadpeterson5698 Kotal Kahn and Shao Kahn had it way more worse, in terms of ruination, then Sindel
Shao Kahn: guy was not only strong but he was also ridiculously smart in the original timeline. He prepped a clone in DA just to make sure he doesn’t get killed by ST and QC. He managed to get mileena on his side without any effort at all. Waited for someone else to take down Onaga because he was OP as fuck. He also predicted betrayal from a mile away from ST. He also conquered many realms as well. To show that he actually had brains, Shao Kahn made a plan to use Shang Tsing as a baby in order to deceive Jerrod and attack him from behind bcoz he was too strong and it worked (mk2 Malibu comics) giving both Jerrod and Shao credibility. In the new timeline, he’s just a dumb brute. He lets liu kang free kitana without any consequences and all his plans go to quan chi. At least, he went out like a badass even though I was pissed on how they downplayed raiden. (U could have raiden defeat with his own power then have elder gods take his soul). In mk11, they buried him. He’s a major dumbass and loses to kitana due to plot. Aftermath treats him worse as they basically gave him a personality of 13yr old Tik Tok simp who is basically an attack dog. He doesn’t even sus out thotdel for her evil plans to make him his bitch (mk11 Sindel ending). Worst of all, people say they did him justice but he doesn’t have any official wins bcoz he has to share his chapter with someone else and then he goes out like a bitch to Shang tsung. Sindel’s retcon takes a giant shit on him as Edenia was hand given to him and the plan to deceive jerrod using a baby to stab Jerrod in the bank is no longer his which breaks power scaling to another level. He has no major achievements in this timeline. I would be fine with him defeating liu kang if they stated that he used the power from the soul chamber to buff him. Shao doesn’t even need help from thotdel as he can easily use soul majic to steal the two shokans souls and heal his eyesight. And why is he protrayed as a loving individual? After mk3, he gave no fucks for Sindel and he even batted her out in armegeddon( score pn’s video). He even gave her soul away to quan chi in mk9 so why does he care for her, not to mention we are literally past the mk3 section of the new timeline. If this was the OG version, he would’ve killed thotdel the moment he sused her out on her evil plan. Shao in this timeline is protrayed as a dumb, weak individual who needs help from other individual to get what he wants and he’s a massive attack dog to others with a personality of a Charlie d’amelio toxic fan
Kotal Kahn: dude was a badass in the comics from burning rain, killling goro and gorbak, forcing reiko to use blood magic daggers to take him on and Shao Kahn actually recognising him as threat, leading him to be locked up in the flesh pits. Hell,havik had to use him so he can plan his chaos across all the realms. They also showed his more honourable side here than in the games. Mkx goes off with a amazing start with the character with him stopping the rebellion and having him defeat rain, Tanya, mileena, Kano and manages to hold off shinnok’s amulet when mileena’s holding out with his own power with the sun and survives. The moment his chapter is gone, he loses every fight, starting off with Kung Jin who is nothing like liu kang in terms of power and skill, they should have had kotal Kahn fake the loss and have him beat up Kung Jin but also respect him for having heart thus accepting the agreement...but nooo, they have to have a guy who is a fucking sun god and master of blood magic lose to a gay guy. Then he loses to jacqui. Then he loses his entire character about being the noble emperor due to the fact that he wants to appease Shinnok, the literal elder god of death who wants every realm burnt to the fucking ground just to fortify outworld’s defences for a stupid fucking reason. Mk11, same thing. Starts off very well with him beating skarlet, baraka, erron and able to knock down Shao for a while which is a huge benefit to kotal Kahn as it shows why kotal is locked up. The moment it is outside his chapter, he loses every fight. Worst of all losing to jade and why tf does he have a relationship with her when they never had any sort of interactions in previous games. Like Shao Kahn, it also makes him a braindead simp which basically his strong aspect of the character to being some stupid romantic type of character. He is also racist to Tarkatans which is not his character since he is meant to be a honourable and noble emperor. In Aftermath, he loses are justified while still bs as he is injured and not fully recovered. However, he is able to fight on the ship. What the fuck? He should be recovering and healing. They also don’t showcase his sun god abilities and his blood magic abilities and the same also applies to shao. He lasts only ten seconds with Shao Kahn before he gets beheaded by him. Wtf was the point of locking him up bcoz he was threat to SK? At least, have him severely injure SK before dying to show he is competent outside his chapter. He fucking knocked down SK ffs. They even retconned the fact that he tried to kill the kombat kids and said he was allies with them when he clearly wasn’t. At least, his gf(past jade) is alive and knocked out and he got a decent send off with a strong opponent, Shao Kahn, who shouldn’t need to break power scaling in order to win( cough cough heras and liu kang), killing him. Doesn’t change the fact that he lost in his own trailer
If they r gonna fix both Kahn’s, get rid of the stupid relationships since it makes them look like incompetent braindead simps who can’t do anything on their own. For SK, if ur gonna do a relationship with him, u could have him expand his relationship with mileena or u could create a new character with a gold-digging power loving thot instead of butchering other characters who have established lore which they could’ve done if it weren’t for robocop. For KK, if ur gonna do a relationship for him, have it make sense and give it some sort of build up. Also, fix the fucking power scaling for these two so they can acc feel like powerful Kahn’s again. I personally feel that if a ruler is not in a relationship, it makes them more independent and badass, but that is my opinion
Update: Shao Kahn has confirmed to win the fight against Kung Lao in rain and Kung Lao interaction dialogue which is better bcoz if thotdel did it, it would have broken power scaling by a landslide considering Kung Lao beat the alliance of Shang Tsung and Quan chi (apparently,thotdel’s murderer) who managed to kill clone Shao Kahn and liu kang
@@WinterburnVideos he also had the shit beaten out of him by the MK equivalent of Red Shirts in the form of Tarkatans’, so yeah even in Aftermath he’s still a loser.
honestly just had the thought of that idea Snake had of Kahn sending Kitana off when he "learns" of Milena(spelling), but with him acting all scary and threatening to the point Shang genuinely looks terrified if dying until Kitana leaves and he immediately smirks and goes "well done sorcerer."
Would be a pretty cool scene
When I was little back in 95 Kahn was so fearsome that even his character select icon was intimidating to me.
Nowadays, he feels like Megatron but the one after the 2007 movie. Ugh.
Damn straight
6:03 He could have said "Kitana my daughter I did not order this sorcerer to create a clone of you. He must be planning to use it to betray me" to make her think he had nothing to do with it.
Why did MK 11 give him this weird skin on his shoulders arms head and back he never had that
Personally I thought that was the only thing they did right. It makes him look more inhuman.
@@Wright805 but it was never a thing so how did he get it
captain beastwinger Good question.
It was most likley a design choice in order to fit the more realistic artstyle (which is excesive by the way the character models use more vertices and polygons than needed, they should have stayed with mkx art style it used mid poly character models which in turn cut down on development time.)
Yep
My 2nd favorite MK character
Give that man some respect!! NRS didn’t
It would've been so cool if Reiko was actually Shao Kahn himself since not many had seen him without his helmet. Or he learned magic to save himself if he were to die, but the cost is the loss of his powers and he reverts to a younger and weaker self. Also, Reiko's crude hammer is a sealed version of Shao Kahn's wrath hammer. Making Reiko as Shao Kahn's weakened self would make him a better character. Because from that point on he has a story of rising again. This time, he had to take down Onaga, who knew Shao since he was young and thus, he had to hide and use allies to create a rebellion. He would then work with Shujinko to defeat Onaga, and later steal the dragon king's powers.
There was one smart thing MK9 Kahn thought of. Acquiring and training his forces in earth realm weapons so they are on equal footing when the invasion started.
in mk11 if you use the Johnny Cage announcer, one of the lines for selecting Shao Kahn is “stock villian”
Can you imagine Netherrealm's Shao Kahn taking the time to slowly *POISON* Onaga? He would've simply fought him because he's dumb and brutish. But the old Shao was actually smart and conniving.
Neatherealm Shao Kahn would fight, get bitched slapped and then blame someone else for his fuck ups.
Well said, pretty much everyone's character in the new timeline was just ruined. Its a shame
If nrs were to interpret it, shao kahn poisoning onaga would be shao kahn going in the forest and finding "apple juice" in the middle of the forest on a stump and doesn't think twice before giving it to onaga and accidently poisons onaga and label falls of revealing that quan chi made the poison and left it in the forest so events would play out cause we all know quan chi is the ultimate mastermind according to nrs
Ya got It all wrong, d'vorah would of done It.
@@Carzeyday Everyone would have done it. Somehow independently of each other.
Netherrealm would retcon it to be like that even though Shao Kahn was evil before Shinnok fell from grace and before Quan Chi actually had influence on anything.
Oh I’ve waited a LONG time for this! Thank you for tearing this character a new one
Jade: That Kronika chose you speaks volumes.
Shao Kahn: She'd have won had she heeded me!
Jade: what do you know of victor Shao Kahn?
Shao Kahn: ... i dunno ask your Realm
"What do you know about Victory Shao Khan"? Lmao i know them words cut deep.
0:50 Sindel going from a good queen brainwashed by Shao Kahn into being his wife, is freed after Liu Kang beat him in MK 3 and trying to free Edenia to evil, having her own free will and in love with him sucked.
I was doing a big cleanup before I got this recommendation.
NRS Shao Kahn is a bigger mess than anything I dealt with.
Watching this video actually makes me want to write my own villain who's big and powerfull but also intelligent and cunning. Really cool consept for villain that combines the best aspects of the dumb brute and the weak mastermind.
The one thing that really caught me by surprise was that Shao Kahn was not only the final boss in MKII and MK3/Ultimate MK3 but he was also the freaking announcer during all those matches. For those that never reach him in those games would had never knew that.
I thought I was the only one who thought this . Kahn ended up being just another cast member instead of being the dominant embodiment of power and knowledge. People got upset when I said something similar to this.. MK has gone to far the rabbit hole and changing the story so much it gets distorted.. they don’t know whether or not to follow the comic book or the story line from the previous game. Idk MK to me is Meh...!! Not like how it was in the 90’s the story line is ridiculous and it keeps changing so much it gives me Whiplash, it’ll stay consistent for a couple games then switch. Idk bout this new MK now scorpion and subzero are tag team partners and frost is robotic idk to each there own.. nice video though much respect ✊🏽 keeping it real.
They ruined him in MK11, he’s my favorite character and they wrote him so so poorly. He was THE main mk antagonist and they reduced him to nothing but a minor side villain defeated by kitana, terrible writing
And in MK11 Aftermath he's more powerful than his usual self by beating LUI FREAKING KANG
I am a god!
They Nerfed him so hard
@@chadpeterson5698 Because you're playing as him and at the end of this, it accomplishes nothing. He didn't even kill the supposed champion or the Edenian's princess.
Facts
Shao Kahn used to be my favorite villain in MK because he was smart, powerful and a overpowered ruler. Now he is a bumbling fool who loses to anybody.
And NOW he's wiping the floor with people he's never beaten before.
He got the General Grievous treatment. Doesn't seem intimidating anymore and just seems like a mustache twirling villain.
>Implying hes smart and charming like a mustache twirling villain
Is it just me or does Shao Kahn's voice in 11 sound bad?
It sounds awful! And what's worse, I feel like it was a conscious decision by the creative team to make him sound more like Donald Trump - cause that's funny, I guess... :|
You're not alone he sounds bad in my opinion too
I don't like it neither. It sounds too much like Atrocitus from Injustice 2.
Even in MK9 his voice was better...kinda like Kabal, now they both just sounds like that dude from the restaurant.
@@thetruej7872 not surprising, since Ike Imadi is the voice actor for both of them.
"What do you know of victory, Shao Khan?"
Shao Khan, who won 9 straight Mortal Kombat tournaments and conquered hundreds, if not thousands of worlds, absorbing trillions of souls:
Remember when a whole season of DBZ focused on how powerful Frieza was and ended with his defeat, only to have him return even stronger, just to get dunked on by Trunks? They explained why that happened. Remember when the whole plot of MK9 focused on how powerful shao kahn was and ended with his defeat, only to have him return in a time merger, just get dunked on by Kitana? They... they didn't really explain that, no.
The saddest thing about the Midway era is unless you read up on the lore through character descriptions and watched the endings you wouldn't know about any of those back stories. The campaign of the old games had zero plot and the later ones only let you play as one guy in Konquest.
And yet, the story that we are given is a million times better than pretyt much anything in the NRS era.
@@The4thSnake It is but, people who don't care to read wouldn't know that.
I found him much more intimidating in MK: Conquest. I get that opinions on that show can be pretty divisive, but I found Jeffery Meek's portrayal to be top-notch. His Shao Kahn was equal parts brutal and scheming, and while I disagreed with how they handled his and Kitana's subplot, overall he was one of the best parts of that show. Soft-spoken, confident villains are far more threatening than screaming, arrogant ones.
I dig that show. Sure it was cheesy but it took its premise seriously and played it straight. It did good with Shang Tsung and Quan Chi too for my money...
the crazy part is that in my most recent lets play of mk 11 the most recent episode as of today, i actually mentioned just how less intimidating shao kahn is by the time of mk11. he's not all that threatening in the grand scheme of things and thats really just a shame considering he was such a cool character once upon a time
And now in Aftermath Shao Kahn washed Geras, Cassie Cage, Johnny Cage, Kung Lao, and Lui Kang but got mopped by Shang Tsung.
@@chadpeterson5698 DUDE RIGHT!?! I was telling my friends aftermath is just a response to everyone's complaints
@@ninjamonkey508 and a good one at that
@@chadpeterson5698 it is and it isnt. At some point me and my friends plan to Revisit and talk about it on my channel. If you wanna subscribe to hear our thoughts you can, mate. (Obviously not here to pull from 4thsnakes viewers tho)
Watching videos like these always reminds me of the usual response I get from others; stories in fighting games NEVER turn out well. Not my words, just what I keep getting told.
MK11 was my first time seeing shao. Seeing how he used to be in the old games was a huge shock.
These were all good beautiful days we were complaining MK9 and MK11's Shao Kahn.... Just wait for MK1.... He turned into biggest jobber ever in MK History... imagine even Reptile defeats him in his chapter...
Yeah... about that. Holy shit you were right.
I come back to this video every once and awhile to prove that fighting game developers are selling out their franchises best aspects and pretending like they arent doing it.
He was Darth Vader scary in 93'
Now he's cartoon Bane scary
This is so true! Before...it really was only Liu that could defeat Khan. This made sense because Liu is incredibly powerful. Only other super super powerful people could even THINK to challenge Khan.
Yet boom, now...Kotal and Kitanna can go toe to toe with him...even having Kitana trash him and humiliate him like hes a scrub. Now...i know why they did this. Tho i wont say what that is...because a look at the dialogue and actions of the characters in 11 says all you need to know. Its just sad.
(S)o (J)ust say (W)hat you want.
And now Shao Kahn has beaten Lui Kang in a fight
@@chadpeterson5698 at least thats more understandable than Kitana or Kotal beating Shao Khan.
@@michaelluna7025 which speaking of Shao Kahn also killed Kotal offscreen.
@Ice by also disrespecting Shinnok by saying he was worthless in a fight
*You know, it's a little weird how they made it so the name "Kahn" is a term for Outworld emperor because now it feels like I should be calling him "Shao" for short and that just feels awkward.
*It was always easy for me to forget that Shao Kahn is a skilled sorcerer in his own right which is easy due to the gameplay and even the story to an extent focusing so much on his brute strength.
*Didn't Deception also suggest Kahn is some kind of god too? There's some hidden message about him being the same race as Raiden and Shinnok which may or may not be a reference to them being family in Annihilation. But that seems inconsistent with him being an adviser to Onaga.
*As for Kitana beating him.... I suppose there are worse options. She is one of the few characters for whom it would be emotionally satisfying and the divine heritage of the Edenians (which admittedly doesn't get nearly enough importance with how often they lose) should make her a powerful enough enemy to take him down. Here's how I'd have done it:
One theory I have is that Tanya's powers are lost Edenian magic that no one else quite understands. After forming a reluctant alliance with her, Kitana, Jade and Sindel start to learn more about the forgotten mystic arts of their realm. They come to the conclusion that the powers they possess were bestowed/taught to them by Shao Kahn in the event that he'd be familiar with them in the event they turned him. Tanya shows them the books on Edenian magic she has preserved so when they confront Kahn next they are ready. One thing that DOA6 did that I liked was that in the final battle with Raidou in story mode you can choose between Kasumi, Hayate and Ayane to fight him. I'd do something similar with the Edenian trio but with the option of switching between characters during the fight.
Thank you for another amazing wasted potential video
I like how Raiko’s MK4 ending was explained that it’s just a thing he does and he just cosplays as Shao Kahn
Please do an episode on Goro. Goro has always been one of my favorite MK characters. Especially once he stepped into more neutral alignment territory after he was shown to be willing to work with Kitana. But no. Netherrealm made Goro, the nine time champion of Mortal Kombat, into a jobber. I'd really like to hear some of your thoughts about what they could have done with him.
Mortal Kombat Armaggedon:
Onaga: EMPORER ONAGA
Shao Kahn: Not anymore
Now we need Onaga to tell him not anymore, regarding Shao being a Kahn lol.
I fucking love coming home from a shitty day at work to one of your videos thanks man
Thanks for sticking around.
Seriously been watching these for ages now and with your sheer knowledge of the lore and history of the entire franchise, you should be at least consulted when they start storyboarding Mortal Kombat 12. Keep up the great work buddy 👌