NOTICE: This is a Recap page, so all spoilers will be left unmarked, per wiki policy. Read ahead only with caution! You Have Been Warned.
The Final Boss, a nightmarish foe designed to test your skills to the fullest, and sometimes they're just plain cheap.
Like Shao Kahn the Konquerer. Or Master Bison of Shadaloo.
The second season's second episode covers the two major fighting game series' archvillains that serve as final opponents of their respective tournaments. Both also have fighting styles that utilize supernatural elements and soul-based weaponry, which shall be put to the test by Wiz and Boomstick in a Death Battle.
The hosts begin to examine Shao Kahn, ruler of Outworld and konquerer of various other realms as well, though it hadn't always been that way. The Elder Gods had assigned Shao Kahn to protect Outworld, where he became a chief advisor to the dragon king Onaga. They conquered several worlds together, but feeling the need to control everything, Kahn soon poisoned Onaga and took Outworld as his own, ruling it with an iron fist.
One weapon he has in his arsenal is the Wrath Hammer, a warhammer with which he finishes foes and renders them into several pieces. He also is an expert of dark magic, which lends him a variety of skills, including the conjuring of spectral blades to throw his opponents way. With it, he can also teleport himself as well as affect others' minds. Although from a different dimension, Shao Kahn masters two variants of Chinese Kung-Fu: Tai Tzu and Lui He, which focus on powerful strikes and solid defense, and he uses his dark magic to further augment these martial arts to make him intensify his destructiveness. Kahn has a wide arsenal of moves, but one really good one is the Emperor's Shield, which deflects all incoming projectiles back at an opponent. And much like all the other Kombatants, he has the capability of closing all of his fights with a Fatality.
He is a living tank, absolutely obliterating all those who stand before him and surviving lethal blows time and time again, but his constant victories leads to a sense of arrogance that is definitely not helpful, as he sometimes pauses in the middle of fights to monologue or taunt his opponent, leaving himself open. He is also bound to the rules of the Elder Gods, only proceeding with his konquest when he wins a Mortal Kombat tournament ten times in a row, something almost done on Earthrealm only to be stopped short by Liu Kang. His endurance and longevity stems from his ability to absorb the souls of defeated foes. Over time, he has managed to trick the Elder Gods and even came close to ultimate victory (and he would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those time-traveling thunder gods). One of his greatest victories was conquering Edenia and claiming Queen Sindel and Princess Kitana as his own wife and daughter.
Wiz and Boomstick then move on to M. Bison, psychopathic founder and leader of the Shadaloo syndicate. Having murdered his parents at a young age, he was found by a band of gypsies and taken under their wing to be trained in the art of Soul Power, which utilizes one's soul as a tool. Eventually, Bison mastered the art, and owing to the art utilizing two halves: a light for healing and a dark for destruction, he forcefully ejected his light half of the soul, which manifested itself in Rose, and focused fully on the destructive potential of Psycho Power. Bison quickly built his criminal empire, and though he intends to take over the world, his motives amounted to eco-terrorism.
The Psycho Power can be used for flight, telekinesis, teleportation and mind control, but another use of it is the augmentation of a self-developed martial art called Shadaloo-ism, which much like his Soul Power emphasizes speed and destruction above all else. His attacks are quick and deadly, including the psycho cannon, head stomp, scissor kick and slide kick, but perhaps one of the deadlier applications of Shadaloo-ism and Psycho Power is the Psycho Crusher, in which he lunges at his opponent while imbued with a soul-based wave, and at full power it can kill a man.
He is extremely cocky, but he is very durable, taking a load of punishment including being shot or having a building collapse on him, and he'll stand back up more annoyed than anything. While Akuma was the only street fighter to have truly defeated him, he managed to resist the Shun Goku Satsu, which would normally destroy the soul, and yet his was protected and put in a new body in time. While the Psycho Power is outright deadly at his full potential, it is often at the expense of his own body. However, his Final Bison Super Form has the raw power that doesn't hold back. Even if his body is damaged beyond repair, his soul can possess a nearby person with a compatible body.
And once again, the two combatants are set up, and with nothing else to do but settle who would win, IT'S TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLE!
Shao Kahn was sitting on his throne with two of his minions. Bison teleported near one of them and destroyed it with his soul-based weaponry. Kahn jumped in, stomping the other minion down in the process, to face down the Shadaloo boss in combat.
FIGHT!
Bison lunged first, only to get countered and thrown far away by Shao Kahn, who then threw the Wrath Hammer at his foe. Bison simply teleported away and landed a clean hit on the laughing Outworld emperor. After a pretty hearty beatdown, including a Psycho Crusher, Bison then attempted to possess Kahn, only to find it useless as he himself gets an uppercut and an attempted juggle with the Spike Charge. Bison teleported away and got himself back into the fight, taking a blow from the Wrath Hammer before initiating the Nightmare Booster and landing a successful blow on the Elder God. When Kahn rose up, unimpressed, Bison attempted to send a flurry of Psycho Cannons at him, only to have them all sent back by way of Emperor Shield. Kahn then impaled Bison against a pillar with an energy spear, then landed a brutal series of punches that sent Bison hurtling through one pillar, then being collapsed on the other.
Then just as Shao Kahn was once again gloating, Bison emerged from the rubble as Final Bison, then initiated a powerful Psycho Crusher before sending a vicious flurry of punches from all sides. However, Shao Kahn punched him away, and after a few Spike Charges to push Final Bison back, he took the Wrath Hammer to his fallen foe and struck until the Super Form wore off. Just then, he hoisted the body and forcefully ripped it in two, but Bison had other plans, his soul attempting to possess the mighty Kahn's body, but it became fruitless the moment Shao Kahn sent out his Soul Tornado, absorbing it as one of his.
K.O.!
... that can't be good! Shao Kahn used his newly-acquired soul to send some destructive balls of power around, then finally destroyed what remained of Bison's body before flying away. Bison truly is a powerful street fighter that can protect his soul much like he did against Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu, but Shao Kahn is a god with far more years of experience, and his notorious taunting in the middle of the fight is a testament of his tenacity. Also, Shao Kahn has an outworldly makeup and had experience with mental attacks, so it is highly unlikely that Bison can successfully do so. Bison's soul-based weaponry is not necessarily the best way to fight Shao Kahn either, since Kahn's moves have involved absorbing souls to get stronger, and he had done exactly that through the conquest of ten realms throughout history.
Shao Kahn vs. M. Bison contains examples of:
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: This battle ended Street Fighter's winning streak, and started their losing streak.
- Dub Name Change: During Bison's section, Wiz and Boomstick discuss how the names of Shadoloo's three top fighters were shuffled from Mike Bison the boxer, Balrog the claw-fighter and Vega the psychic leader to Balrog, Vega and M. Bison respectively in the West. They attribute the change to Mike Tyson's 1991 rape scandal rather than fear of litigation for copyright infringement from the Tyson estate, however.
- Evil Versus Evil: On the one hand, you have Master Bison; a man who literally purged every semblance of good from his soul in order to unlock the full destructive potential of the evil aspect of Soul Power and now wants to conquer the world. On the other hand, you have Shao Kahn, an immortal, soul-eating, dimension-conquering tyrant.
- Feed It with Fire: In the post-fight analysis, Wiz and Boomstick note that using Soul Power against somebody who eats souls is unlikely to be very effective.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Bison's Resurrective Immortality would normally make dying a mere slap on the wrist with him. But Shao Kahn eats souls. Once Bison is sans body, Shao Kahn simply consumes him.
- Oh, Crap!: Boomstick's reaction to Shao Kahn winning
- Power Degeneration: Bison's greatest weakness is that his body cannot handle his Psycho Power, causing him to slowly physically degenerate the more he uses it.
- Rasputinian Death: Shao Khan kills Bison by repeatedly bashing him over the head with his hammer, then picking him up and tearing him in half at the waist before devouring his soul.
- Resurrective Immortality: Bison gets around his Power Degeneration by creating bio-engineered host-bodies and clones to Body Surf into once his current body is destroyed.
- The Stinger: After the episode, Boomstick has the full version of his song for M. Bison to the tune of the Captain Planet theme.
- Strong and Skilled: Both Shao Kahn and Bison possess enormous raw power and are highly skilled martial artists. But Shao Khan's superior skill, having both thousands of years of combat experience and the accumulated martial arts prowess of all his victims, spelled victory for him.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Shao Kahn routinely devours the souls of his opponents. This is called out as making him naturally adept at fighting Bison, as once Bison's body is used up by his Power Degeneration or he dies in battle, Shao Kahn can easily consume Bison. Sure enough, the fight ends with Shao Kahn devouring Bison.
- Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Shao Kahn's deadliest power is that he can acquire the fighting skills and abilities of anyone whose soul he consumes. The implications that this means Shao Kahn can steal Bison's Psycho Power after consuming Bison's soul leaves Boomstick very disturbed.
- Visionary Villain: The fact Bison in the original Animated Adaptation of Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II V, wants to conquer the Earth to save the environment from pollution and governmental mishandling is brought up by Wiz, and mocked by Boomstick, who promptly does a riff on the Captain Planet theme portraying Bison as "the hero".
