Shinnok
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Shinnok is a fictional character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series.
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[edit] About Shinnok
Shinnok is a vengeful and powerful fallen Elder God who appeared in Mortal Kombat 4, Mortal Kombat Gold and Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero as the primary villain. He is also a playable character in Mortal Kombat Armageddon, along with his appearance in the "Konquest" mode of Mortal Kombat Armageddon.
Unlike Shao Kahn, Shinnok relies less on brute strength and fear-mongering, and more on magical powers and ancient artifacts. He is the ruler of the Netherealm, possessing millions of years worth of knowledge and power, including the ability to impersonate other beings perfectly.
Shinnok demands unwavering faith and loyalty from his followers, and will not hesitate to kill anyone who doubts or challenges him. Like Raiden, he can never be truly killed due to the fact that he is a god and thus, immortal. If his mortal form is destroyed, he will reform himself, usually back in the Netherrealm where he was originally banished.
[edit] Storyline
Shinnok's fall from grace was caused by his lust for power, and more specifically, his desire to take Earthrealm for himself.
At the dawn of time, when the realms were created, Shinnok desired to rule Earthrealm and thus acquire for himself immense power. However, Shinnok couldn't enter Earthrealm without the Elder Gods becoming aware of his actions. To resolve this issue without directly defying the sacred rules, Shinnok created a powerful amulet, weakened the dimensional barriers, and entered Earthrealm. During the war against his fellow gods, he came into direct conflict with the thunder god Raiden.
During the final stages of this war, Raiden was forced to choose between sacrificing Earth's indigenous races, or ceding the rule of Earthrealm to Shinnok. The angered Elder Gods intervened and assisted Raiden in his struggle. Raiden defeated Shinnok, and stripped him of his amulet. Shinnok was then banished to the deepest regions of the Netherealm. However, at the expense of Shinnok's defeat, the dimensional fibers of the worlds were severely weakened, and the Saurians, Earth's indigenous life form at the time, were nearly exterminated.
In the Netherealm, Shinnok endured constant torture from the Netherealm's overlord, Lucifer. Shinnok was at his mercy until he encountered a sorcerer, Quan Chi, who could travel through the realms at will. Quan Chi agreed to aid Shinnok to overthrow Lucifer and take his throne, thus becoming ruler of the Netherealm. As payment for Quan Chi's efforts, Shinnok endowed him with incredible powers, making him arch-sorcerer of the Netherealm. During his time in the Netherrealm Shinnok built a massive army and a fanatical cult of demons called the Brotherhood of Shadow, dedicated to worshipping him. He changed the Netherealm's appearance as well, to make it look closer in appearance to Earthrealm.
Many years later, Shinnok plotted to escape the Netherealm once more, but in order to do so he needed his lost sacred amulet. After centuries of searching, Quan Chi eventually discovered the amulet's whereabouts for Shinnok, hidden in the Temple of Elements and under the protection of four elemental gods. Using the Lin Kuei warrior Sub-Zero Quan Chi recovered it, but unbeknownst to Shinnok, he created a flawed replica in its place which he delivered, keeping the original for himself. Shinnok would lose the fake amulet later against Sub-Zero.
During Shao Kahn's failed invasion of Earthrealm, Shinnok ordered Noob Saibot to spy on these events and eventually side with the Earthrealm warriors. Shao Kahn would later attempt, unsuccessfully, to invade the Netherrealm as well. Shinnok took the chance to send Mileena as well, seeing it as a sign that Shao Kahn was becoming too powerful.
Some time after Shao Kahn's defeat, Shinnok put into motion his new plot to escape the Netherrealm, having as first target Edenia. After successfully posing as a group of refugees, Shinnok and his highest generals, using Tanya's Edenian connections, were allowed entrance to the peaceful realm. He immediately seized this opportunity to bring in a full-scale invasion force, and captured Queen Sindel and Princess Kitana.
Unfortunately for Shinnok, his newfound empire was short-lived. Despite invading the Heavens themselves and killing many of the Gods, Raiden and his warriors managed to penetrate Shinnok's defenses in order to stop him, and Shinnok himself was defeated by the shaolin monk Liu Kang. After his loss, Shinnok was banished back to the Netherealm.
In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon's Konquest mode, Shinnok is encountered by the protagonist Taven in the Netherealm, where it is revealed that Shinnok had been a friend to Taven and his family for many years. However, because he had been in incubation for such a long time, Taven was unaware of Shinnok's attempts to conquer the realms and his eventual downfall, thus still considering him as an Elder God on the side of good. Taven rescues him from Li Mei, and then helps Shinnok regain control of his spire from an army of demons wishing to overthrow his rule. Shinnok then sends Taven to Earthrealm so he could continue the search for his brother Daegon, but in actuality, Shinnok had been working with Daegon all along to delay Taven and throw him off his trail, as well as to test his strength with the (revealed to be fake) insurrection.
Also, in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Shinnok appears to make alliances with other characters as well, albeit for his own purposes. He appears first to Raiden, who, earlier on, had been corrupted by his suicidal attempt to stop Onaga, and had just re-animated the corpse of Liu Kang through unholy incantations. Noting this dark change in the thunder god, Shinnok proposes an agreement with Raiden, in exchange for the safety of Earthrealm. Raiden accepts, but only to learn the fallen Elder God's motives. Later on, he strikes a deal with Onaga, offering to free the Dragon King from the Netherrealm in exchange for his servitude. Onaga reluctantly accepts, but only so that he could escape his confines in the realm. It would later be revealed in Onaga's bio that Shinnok is manipulating events so that, if the half-god Daegon succeeds in slaying the elemental Blaze, all of Shinnok's enemies will die, leaving no one to contest the Fallen Elder God's ascension from the Netherrealm.
In Shinnok's Armageddon ending, he sends a copy of himself to aid Daegon in defeating Blaze, but Daegon disappears and Shinnok's copy ends up defeating Blaze himself, becoming as powerful as the real Shinnok. Shinnok must defeat this false copy if he is to rule supreme again.[1]
[edit] Combat characteristics
[edit] Signature moves
- Moveset Copy: Shinnok can copy the moveset of any kombatant. (MK4, MKG)
- Judgment Fist: Shinnok fires a fist-shaped skeletal hand to his opponent. (MK:A)
- Summoned Fiend: Much like a minimal version of "The Hand From Hell" fatality, Shinnok rises a skeletal hand below his opponent. The hand then grabs the victim and squeezes/shakes the opponent, causing damage. (MK:A)
- Tricky Portal: Shinnok opens a portal behind himself and teleports, causing damage by bashing his back as he appears behind the opponent. (MK:A)
[edit] Recurring fatalities
- Hand From Hell: Shinnok disappears in a puff of flame, then a portal opens on the ground near the victim. A giant skeletal hand emerges from the portal and grabs the victim, slowly squeezing until their head pops off from the pressure. As the portal closes, the hand pulls back into the portal, taking the headless body with it, but leaving the head. Shinnok then reappears. (MK4, MKG)
- Two-Hand Smash: Shinnok levitates his victim high in the air, then disappears. A giant portal appears under the victim, and two skeletal hands emerge on either side of him/her. The victim wails briefly before the two hands brutally clap on the victim. They then retreat into the portal, revealing bloody messes of flesh and bone on the inside of the palms as they do so. Shinnok reappears over the still-open portal. (MK4, MKG)
[edit] Appearances in other media
[edit] Film
According to the second Mortal Kombat movie, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Shinnok is the father of Raiden and Shao Kahn, who wishes for power not only over all realms, but over the gods as well.
He favors Shao Kahn, considering Raiden too weak and caring to be his son. Shinnok orders Shao Kahn to kill his brother while guiding him in his path to merging the parallel universes of Earth and Outworld. Shinnok is later imprisoned by the elder gods and Raiden offered his position in their ranks.
The events in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation are not considered canon in the series storyline, and contradict many elements of games released before and after. Many fans have disapproved of this departure from the games.
[edit] Character development
Shinnok is loosely based on Journey to the West's demon Yan Wang. Such an appearance may have inspired his incarnation in the movie.
Shinnok's little-known "backstory" concerning his overthrowing of the Netherealm from Lucifer's hand is mentioned in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero's instruction manual, as well as Mortal Kombat: Deception's Konquest mode, where Shinnok makes a cameo (his voice here seems to be the same that he had in MK4). However, there is no other information about Shinnok's battle with Lucifer.
Shinnok's entire backstory in Mortal Kombat is much like that of the fallen angel Satan, because he is the fallen Elder God and is ruler of the Netherealm, which is 'Hell' in the game's story.
In Mortal Kombat 4, Shinnok's face was based on the game's art designer, Steve Beran.
In promotional pictures of Mortal Kombat 4, Shinnok is shown to have a staff decorated with a replica of his amulet, although he never actually uses it in the game. He does, however, use a slighty modified version of the staff as his weapon stance in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.
[edit] Game information
Much like Shang Tsung, Shinnok is able to imitate the special moves of nearly every character in the game, although graphical limitations prevented him from actually morphing into the characters he imitated, like Tsung does. Unlike Shang Tsung, who possessed his own moves when not morphed, this was Shinnok's only move in Mortal Kombat 4, he is unable to take advantage of combos or protect himself between character imitations and, hence, many players consider him a disappointingly low-tier character, even going so far as to call him a substandard Shang Tsung rip-off, as a result. This, combined with his less-than-intimidating physical appearance, has since made creator Ed Boon reevaluate Shinnok's position as MK4's final boss.
Shinnok didn't have his move copy techniques in the Game Boy Color version of MK4, instead he is given two special moves: a Scorpion-esque Spear move and a dash punch.
Shinnok, with Quan Chi, is the first boss character to be initially playable in a Mortal Kombat fighting game upon their initial appearances in the fighting games. Shao Kahn, Motaro, Goro and Kintaro were initially playable character during the PSX and PC versions of Mortal Kombat Trilogy, but they were already established characters. Still, technically both Shinnok and Quan Chi were unplayable bosses in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, before their appearances in MK4. However, since it was in a side-scroller game and not a fighting game, this appearance doesn't count.
If "Big Head Mode" is activated in Mortal Kombat 4, the hands in Shinnok's fatalities will roughly double in size. Oddly, in the Two Hand Clap, the hands will fail to retract entirely into the portal, offering an excellent view of the bloody gunk on them.
In Mortal Kombat 4, if playing as the secret character Goro, the sub-boss will be replaced by Shinnok. Shinnok will appear again the next match as the boss.
