Shanghai's God of War

I was introduced to Shen when I was getting into KOF. He was one of the few fighters that left a strong first impression on me!

Overall, he's a very simple character! A simple design, simple motivation, simple personality, etc. I don't know why but I find a lot of comfort in it (although, I do wish it was expanded upon. I'd love to see him interact with other characters, especially with him prioritizing loyalty). I specifically like his relationship with Duo Lon, as they're dynamic is very much an opposites-sun-and-moon relationship and I love those dynamics! It's also pretty subtle/muted.

I think part of the reason I like him a lot is because I'm a fan of the Yakuza/Ryu Ga Gotoku franchise and I've recently finished watching The Infernal Affairs trilogy (would reccomend!). Shen feels like he fits right into that mafia/gangster setting.

He also fits my playstyle very well. I love playing characters that get all-up-in-your-face.

He's so head empty just like me

Little tidbits from the games that I really like and wanted to showcase.

observations

• In all games within "The Ash Saga", Shen has been a consistent member of the protagonists' teams.
• Despite this, he hasn't been playable since XIII. SNK, please I am begging you. I miss him so much.
• There are various official art that depict Shen fondling some walnuts. One of his intros in 2003 and XI show him doing this. He's also shown doing it in his official XII artwork. This might be a reference to "play walnuts" (Mandarin Chinese: 文玩核桃). This can be seen as a collector's items (as the oil from the skin changes the color of the shell) and helps with hand dexterity. This seems to be more common among older generations.
• From 2003-XI, his shirt used to have a snake pattern. From XII-onwards, this has been changed into a gecko.
• In KOF XII (and by extension XIII), Shen's English voice is provided by Jeff Manning, who also voices the announcer and Master Hand from the original Super Smash Bros.
• He likes crazy women, specifically the will-mutilate-you-and-eat-you kind. Good for him honestly.
• Along with his arm tattoos, he also has a back tattoo that is only visible on some of his sprites. In the mobile app KOF All Stars, he has an alternate outfit where he's shirtless. Despite this, the backsprite doesn't have the tattoo.

headcanons

For those who don't know, headcanon is a fandom term that is essentially a "fan made" detail for another person's creative work.

Many of these are based off of things noted in observations, just a bit expanded upon.

• In Shen's official profiles, his real name and real birth place are listed as unknown. I'm assuming, for the most part, the characters themselves are given a form like this to fill out. In his XIII introductary dialogue Ralf and win quote against K', he implies that he's experienced worst and his agitated about it (Ralf being a soldier and K' being a victim of human experimentation). I imagine Shen has a mix of selective amnesia and we will not talk about this.
• I imagine Shen grew up in a relatively old, traditional environment. This would explain his play walnuts and his XIII comments towards the female characters.
• Shen has multiple sets of play walnuts. I'd like to imagine in his 2003 and XI introduction animation (where he crushes some), they're specifically more recently acquired/bad looking walnuts that he brought along to the tournament.

images

Various drawings I've done of Shen!

He's a type of character that I'm not used to drawing. I grew up drawing pretty boys so moving from that to Shen (who qualifies moreso as a "handsome man") was a challenge.

I feel like, because of that, I haven't been able to draw him as consistently on model as I would like.