Highlights
- Shang Tsung's hunger for power and victory knows no bounds, as he is willing to go to extreme lengths, such as consuming the souls of innocent fighters, to achieve his goals.
- The creation of Mileena, a half-Tarkatan clone of Kitana, showcases Shang Tsung's twisted experiments and his willingness to create deadly beings for his own benefit.
- Shang Tsung's ruthless nature is revealed in his actions towards Kenshi, as he blinds the swordsman and leaves him for dead, showing his utter disregard for human life.
The Mortal Kombat universe is full of dark and mysterious characters who have committed some truly despicable acts throughout the course of the games, but none quite compare to the evil shape-shifting sorcerer known as Shang Tsung. While Shao Khan often appears to be the big main villain of the Mortal Kombat games, it's Shang Tsung who really spurs on a lot of the events that occur throughout the long story of Mortal Kombat, constantly using his otherworldly powers to scheme his way to victory, no matter what the cost.
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While Quan Chi and Shao Khan may have proved their evil nature on more than a few occasions, Shang Tsung especially stands out for his constant hunger to utterly annihilate anyone who gets in his way in the most brutal way possible. It should be said that many of the events covered in this list will focus on the original and alternate timelines as we haven't had quite enough time to see how much chaos Shang Tsung is going to cause in Liu Kang's new timeline featured in Mortal Kombat 1. With that being said, these are the times when Shang Tsung went way too far and proved just how ruthless and maniacal he really is as a villain.
6 Restoring The Dragon King's Army
After Quan Chi proposes a deal to Shang Tsung where the sorcerer would provide him with an army in exchange for an endless supply of souls, Shang Tsung agrees and kicks off their new alliance by resurrecting the corpses of the Dragon King's legendary army. The reason Quan Chi desired such a massive force of troops was to finally defeat the Elder Gods, in turn breaking their power ver the realms and becoming the ruler of all creation.
The way Shang Tsung went about collecting the souls that were needed to revive the army proves just how maniacal he really is as a villain. This can be seen in the case of Li Mei, a plucky young fighter who enters the Mortal Kombat tournament due to Shang Tsung's promise that her village will be freed from the Deadly Alliance if she wins. While she does eventually come out the victor, Shang Tsung reveals that this was a trap and proceeds by consuming the soul of Li Mei which was the last one needed to complete the army.
5 Creating Mileena
The Flesh Pits are where Shang Tsung conducts his horrifying experiments that often involve mixing science with dark magic, and Mileena was an unfortunate test subject that was birthed from this process. Suspicious that Kitana may one day betray him, Shao Khan orders his submissive sorcerer to create a clone of the ruler's daughter, but who will instead be half Tarkatan in order to make her stronger than her "sister" and also more loyal.
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Without a moment of hesitation, Shang Tsung uses his powers and scientific expertise to create a being made up of Tarkatan blood and Edenian physiology to produce the maniacal sai-wielding humanoid, Mileena. Shang Tsung wasn't the only individual responsible for Mileena's existence, but considering that she would go on to become one of the most feared and murderous members of Shao Khan's army, the fact that he acted so willingly to create her in the first place still makes it a horrific act all the same.
4 Blinding Kenshi
Many fans know Kenshi as the blind master swordsman who uses telepathic powers to command the spirits that lay within his sword known as Sento, but the story of how he actually lost his vision is quite a disturbing one, and of course, it involves Shang Tsung. While roaming Earthrealm in the hopes of finding worthy combatants, Kenshi came across Song, a shifty old man who claimed to know the location of a powerful sword that only someone as strong as Kenshi could wield.
Upon reaching the tomb where the sword supposedly lay though, Kenshi is blinded by the souls rushing out from the well which permanently blinds him. It turns out that the unnerving individual guiding Kenshi was Shang Tsung in disguise who was waiting for someone to open the well so that he could absorb the souls for himself, which he does before leaving Kenshi for dead. Luckily, Kenshi managed to hear the call of Sento and ultimately became the warrior we know him as today because of this event, but it still shows the utter disregard Shang Tsung has for human life.
3 Killing Liu Kang
When the Deadly Alliance between Shang Tsung and Quan Chi was first formed, they both realized that there were two major obstacles left in their way that could disturb the mission to take over the realms, those being Liu Kang and Shao Khan. In many ways, Liu Kang is seen as somewhat of a deity figure in Mortal Kombat, more so than ever now that he's a literal Fire God in Mortal Kombat 1.
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By the time of the Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance story though, he had won four separate Mortal Kombat tournaments, ensuring the peace of Earthrealm and protecting it from evil invaders. In a desperate attempt to eliminate him for good, Shang Tsung shape-shifts as Liu Kang's ally, Kung Lao, in order to get close to him, before eventually snapping his neck. Years later, Raiden reanimates Liu Kang who just so happens to come back as a mindless zombie and goes on a chaotic killing spree, slaughtering all of his fellow monks. By killing the one person who was providing a balance between the realms, Shang Tsung ultimately caused many unnecessary deaths just for the purpose of getting one step closer to becoming a feared ruler.
2 Resurrecting Sindel
After it becomes evident that Shao Khan's forces can't win the Mortal Kombat tournament due to the strength of the Earthrealm inhabitants, mainly Liu Kang, the tyrannical leader decides to take the realm by force. To do this, he orders Shang Tsung to resurrect Sindel, who had taken her own life due to her abusive marriage with Shao Khan, and who would now re-appear in Earthrealm. By stepping over into Earthrealm and re-uniting with his late wife, Shao Khan would be merging it with Outworld, therefore commencing an invasion.
This inevitably led to billions of people becoming enslaved and killed at Shao Khan's command, with nearly all of Earthrealm being completely stripped of life with the inhabitant's souls being taken as the Khan's personal trophies. Shang Tsung, who was just as big of a key player in this plan as Shao Khan, was ordered to finish off the few remaining souls who managed to survive the attack, something he ultimately failed at doing, but was still willing to carry out without a second thought.
1 Dooming Earthrealm To Eternal Darkness
While this event isn't technically canon, it's still a possible ending that can be achieved in one of the games and presents a timeline where we get to see what Shang Tsung would do if he had enough power and influence. In Shang Tsung's Mortal Kombat 2 ending, the evil sorcerer ends up betraying his very own master, Shao Khan, and takes his Outworld army for his own personal use.
With an unstoppable army by his side, Shang Tsung decides to weaken the dimensional gates between Earthrealm and Outworld. He and his loyal group of elite Shadow Priests then send a "never-ending horde of demons" into earth who would ensure that the population was doomed to "eternal darkness". While the gory gameplay of the Mortal Kombat series is already pretty dark, it's moments like these that show that the story can be just as bleak, especially if this was the timeline that the canon story followed.