Shang-Tsei

**Shang-Tsei** is the main antagonist from the *Johnny and the Warriors of Chronos TV series*. He is often referred to as a samurai warlord and held the title of the Dragonlord until his niece Kira took his place in the season 2 episode "The New Dragonlord".

His only known relative is Kira, his niece, and he is often shown alongside his henchmen, Raptor, the hybrid, and Ragnar, the viking. Although no official alliance is ever formed, he allies frequently with other villains Sinistra, but they betray each other as frequently as they help each other out. Dr. Rodent was often shown to be working for Shang-Tsei, although he was never referred to as one of his henchmen.

Shang-Tsei's goal was always to take over Camelot, the most important kingdom of Chronos, even if it was never explained why. He was locked away in the Void Dimension in the season 2 episode "Escape From the Void" and he never escaped ever since.

## Development

Along with Prince Marcus, Princess Leana, Sergeant Cyborg and Merlin, Shang-Tsei was one of the first five characters Zaid Campbell created for the *Warriors of Chronos* toyline:

> *"I needed a villain, and to me a warlord was the perfect choice. Strategic, wise, powerful, proud. [...] Of course the cartoon happened and Shang-Tsei became as dumb as any other cartoon villain, but I was glad to see that his niece character, Kira, portrayed those values. She might not be one of my characters, but she was exactly what I wanted Shang-Tsei to be."* admitted Zaid Campbell, in an interview by 2nz.
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Originally, Shang-Tsei was named Ryu, the Japanese word for dragon, but Campbell claims he had to change it because Clover wanted something "more Chinese" even though Campbell told them numerous times that samurais were Japanese. Zaid Campbell, often referred to as the series' "daddy", is usually thought to be the one responsible for treating samurais as Chinese, but he keeps redirecting the blame to Clover.

## History

In the first season of *Johnny and the Warriors of Chronos*, Shang-Tsei attempts over and over again to take over Camelot, and to do so he sometimes try to steal Johnny's Hyperstone. Being the Dragonlord, the leader of Dragonland, Shang-Tsei's objective is to take over the entirety of Chronos, this is why taking control of Camelot, the most important kingdom of Chronos, is so important to his mission. In season 1, he had control of the High Seas, the Pirate Cove, and the Dark Mountain in addition of Dragonland, and he had two henchmen, Raptor and Ragnar. He also hired the Shadow Thief and Dr. Rodent on various occasions although they did not exclusively worked for Shang-Tsei. Sinistra allied occasionally with Shang-Tsei too, but betrayal is always on the end of the line whenever they team up. Other allies of Shang-Tsei include Redbeard and Billy Outlaw, but they mainly worked on their own accounts.

In season 1, Shang-Tsei succeeded on taking over Camelot in the episode "Shang-Tsei's Victory", where he successfully steal away the Hyperstone and takes over the throne of Camelot, but infighting between Raptor and Ragnar causes enough distraction for the Warriors of Chronos to take back Camelot and the Hyperstone.

In the "Relics of Chronos" story arc, Shang-Tsei understands that the key to conquering Chronos is by uniting the four relics of Chronos. He gets his hands on Neptune's Triton, the BloodBlade and the Scroll of Wind, but he fails to retrieve the Dragonstone, a relic he initially held but that was then with Ruby.

In the "Luna and the Warriors of Chronos" story arc Luna visits an alternate universe where Shang-Tsei successfully conquered Camelot. Instead of having the power of the Hyperstone to help him win, he stole away Excalibur and used its power to help him in his quest. When Luna reunites Chronos she also overthrows Shang-Tsei and puts Johnny on the throne in addition of making him the leader of the Warriors of Chronos.

In "Escape From the Void", Shang-Tsei decides to break Dr. Rodent out of the Void Dimension: with Sinistra, Ragnar and Raptor, he tries to create a breach which will give Dr. Rodent a chance to escape. Even though he escapes, the Warriors of Chronos corner Shang-Tsei and his henchmen and they trap the three of them into the Void Dimension. Since, Shang-Tsei never escaped the Void Dimension, now forced to pay for his life-long streak of evil deeds against the people of Chronos. He then lost his title of Dragonlord, which was lastly held by his niece Kira since the episode "The New Dragonlord".