Shao Kahn

was there a reason why shao kahn didn't participate in the 1st tournament?

I don't think he was allowed to or something like that. That's why he had Shang Tsung overlook the events of the MK1 tournament and make sure Outworld won because that would have been Outworlds tenth consecutive win which would allow Kahn and his armies to invade earthrealm.
 
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Steve Ritchie sounded good in MK2 and MK3, in Shaolin Monks he sounds pretty poor IMO. I was dubious at first but I do like MK9 Shao Kahn, the voice actor is really good at doing the Saturday Morning Cartoon show type villian. Had some excellent dialogue. I cant see Steve Ritchie adding the same drama to Kahns voice for story mode, hence I guess thats why they didnt use him.

Steve Ritchie is a pinball guy through and through; he doesn't particularly enjoy much of his MK association relative to his love of pinball. Boon and Tobias "borrowed" him while they were all at Midway because of his gruff voice. I would have much preferred one closer to Steve Ritchie's classic voice for Shao Kahn in MK9. In general, MK9 did such a great job in terms of fan service, I still feel that this was one of the most glaring omissions (the others, for me, were the lack of the Warrior Shrine, Motaro, and Brutalities).
 
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Steve Ritchie passed away you clods! god rest his Soul. Shao kahn was horrible in this game he sounded like a buffoon and looked like a "Hercules: the legendary Journies" reject. Ritchie will always be Shao kahn.
 
Damn that sucks about the throat cancer thing :/ and I looked but I don't think he is dead. He will always be the best Kahn voice actor in my opinion, the job he did as the announcer in MK2 and all versions of MK3 was amazing, by far my favorite announcer, I personally did not like MK9's announcer.
 
I could have sworn that i read an article declaring his passing. If i was wrong i retract that statement
 
I could have sworn that i read an article declaring his passing. If i was wrong i retract that statement

I highly doubt he's dead, but I did hear he had tinnitus and was projected to go completely deaf by 2013. However, this was the first I've heard of him having something much more serious than that.

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Steve Ritchie passed away you clods! god rest his Soul. Shao kahn was horrible in this game he sounded like a buffoon and looked like a "Hercules: the legendary Journies" reject. Ritchie will always be Shao kahn.

Steve Ritchie didn't die, but he has tinnitus, which causes hearing loss. It's kinda hard to do voice acting when you can't hear your own voice or how the director wants you to sound. His last portrayal of Khan was in Shaolin Monks.
 
Now as much as I love Kahn, I do agree that it is probably for the best if he took a break from the next game. I definately want Shinnok to take his place as the final boss to have some diversity. I wouldn't object if they made him a regular playable character though, just like they did in MK Deception - in my opinion it was a really cool idea, reminded me of Shang Tsung becoming one of the main playable characters in MK2 after being the unplayable boss in the original Mortal Kombat. Or even Heihachi Mishima becoming a playable character in Tekken 2 after Tekken 1. Now, I see that this is something that would be frowned upon by many as making him weaker wouldn't make sense story-wise, unless after his defeat he lost some of his power, or something...

All in all, Shao Kahn made a wonderful comeback in MK9, my only problem with him was the voice acting, which is quite a substantial issue if you ask me. I feel like they could have done better than that.
 
Now as much as I love Kahn, I do agree that it is probably for the best if he took a break from the next game. I definately want Shinnok to take his place as the final boss to have some diversity. I wouldn't object if they made him a regular playable character though, just like they did in MK Deception - in my opinion it was a really cool idea, reminded me of Shang Tsung becoming one of the main playable characters in MK2 after being the unplayable boss in the original Mortal Kombat. Or even Heihachi Mishima becoming a playable character in Tekken 2 after Tekken 1. Now, I see that this is something that would be frowned upon by many as making him weaker wouldn't make sense story-wise, unless after his defeat he lost some of his power, or something...

All in all, Shao Kahn made a wonderful comeback in MK9, my only problem with him was the voice acting, which is quite a substantial issue if you ask me. I feel like they could have done better than that.

The difference with Heihachi becoming playable in Tekken 2 is that unlike the other bosses, Heihachi became the primary hero in Tekken 2 after being the primary villain the previous game due to Kazuya ending up with the opposite path during that span.

As for Shao Kahn's voice acting, Steve Ritchie unfortunately will never come back to voicing him due to tinnitus, which last I heard was expected to result in complete deafness.

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I think I never had a problem with his voice, just how he was portrayed sometimes. In the MKII comic made by John Tobias, Shao Kahn wasn't even that furious at Shang Tsung for losing control of the tournament; he seemed surprisingly calm and calculating, only intending to have Tsung executed to appease King Gorbak (which I wish they would have included in some way). I feel like that part of Kahn has been lost somewhat; his intellect as a scheming strategist, especially when they changed MK3's core plot of Kahn's plan of resurrecting Sindel on Earth that was in the making for 10,000 years to MK9's spur of the moment resurrection of Sindel and just making Kahn appear more hot-headed and less intelligent.
 
^Have you seen Mortal Kombat Conquest?
It is by far the best rendition of Shao Kahn to have ever existed. He's a great blend of cunning, cruelty and calmness.


The ending of Conquest has one of the biggest "Holy shit!" moments in television history.


 
No, but this Kahn looks like a scheming, intelligent badass villain compared to the one-dimensional cartoon version we got.
 
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I think the worst part in MK9 was when Quan Chi heals him and offers to resurrect Sindel.
Shao kahn says "This is a most magnanimous offer" To which Quan Chi says "I wish only to serve, my emperor"

Really? Shao Kahn doesn't even know (to my knowledge) where Quan Chi is from, but he accepts this massive help from him and doesn't suspect he has an ulterior motives? This incredibly powerful sorcerer that he allows to wander around unchecked? The only people that follow him are Scorpion and Noob Saibot, beings of his own creation. They aren't going to snitch Quan Chi out.
 
Yeah... He did, however, make that whole deal with Quan Chi to allow him access to the souls lost in the conflict, so I guess that means Shao Kahn did know and accepted Quan Chi's deal anyway. Still, it seems pretty dumb he would attempt to enter Earthrealm and merge it with Outworld on Quan Chi's suggestion. A disappointing way to portray him at the cost of implementing a simplistic retcon of MK3's events with the Elder Gods and their rules.
 
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