are unaffected by the cobalt in the mines due to his human heritage. While in the mines, he keeps Kreeyan princess Vorpax as his personal slave and generally mistreats her until she receives her mother's powers. As with the other characters, Tsung is defeated in the finale by Kahn's Shadow Priests. Shang Tsung appears briefly in the short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, portrayed by James Lew, and in the third episode of the web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy, played by Johnson Phan. Tagawa reprised his role from the first movie for the second season as successfully luring Liu Kang over to Outworld. Shang Tsung appears in the animated film Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge and the sequel Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms. Chin Han portrays Shang Tsung in the 2021 reboot film Mortal Kombat. Reception Cultural impact Shang Tsung was featured along with Raiden, Ermac, Jax, and Scorpion in a 2014 animated short film parodying Mortal Kombat that was produced by Comedy Central and titled "The Tournament of Fighting Styles." He was renamed "Yao Zhang" and was the host of a secret underground tournament that is halted when a match featuring "Iron Shogun" (Scorpion) goes awry after the tournament's other contestants are no-shows, leaving Zhang scrambling to find a replacement. Iron Shogun is eventually declared the tournament winner when he kills a pizza deliveryman who unwittingly enters the arena. Shang Tsung appeared in a 2012 episode of The Annoying Orange, played by Bobby Jennings (Bobjenz). Critical reaction The character was met with a positive critical reception. Shang Tsung was ranked 17th on GameDaily's 2009 list of top evil masterminds of all time, which noted his attack style and goals while stating he is "one twisted freak." That same year, GamesRadar listed him as one of the top villains who will never stay dead. He was also sixth on GamesRadar's list of most misunderstood videogame villains. GamesRadar also listed his Fatality where he morphs into Kintaro from Mortal Kombat II as one of "ten greatest things about Mortal Kombat". In 2010, Shang Tsung was ranked 97th in IGN's list of top video game villains, with a comment that "considering Shang Tsung's devious powers and his cruel methods, his status as a reputable villain of the series is well deserved." He was also ranked as third in Game Revolution's list of top old school Mortal Kombat characters for his ability