Street Fighter/Headscratchers


 * What happened to Adon (the guy from Street Fighter and Street Fighter Alpha)?
 * It's heavily implied that he went to fight Akuma. Seeing that Akuma always fights to the death, it's not too hard to imagine what happened to Adon...
 * Akuma didn't kill Gen the first time they fought, nor did he kill Ryu.
 * Akuma fights by a strict code of honour. If he feels that the person he is fighting is not at the top of their game (ie. sick, or otherwise handicapped like Gen was, or still to reach their true potential like Ryu) he will stop the fight. If he meets a fighter significantly weaker than him (Adon) he will not fight them unless challenged. However, once someone challenges him, they are fair game.
 * As of SFIV, he's still around in the professional Muay Thai circuit.
 * And as of SSFIV he's back on the roster.
 * Does this mean that his fight with Akuma ended prematurely because he was found lacking? (see above points)
 * Maybe he only went looking for Akuma but didn't actually fight him.
 * Who exactly was it who defeated Bison at the end of Alpha 3?
 * Word of God says that Ryu, Cammy, and Guile all ended up fighting, and beating, Bison consecutively, with Guile being the one who killed him and shut down the Psycho Drive.
 * I think you have the wrong God. From what I heard, basically, Sagat's ending started, at the part where Bison has him fighting a possessed Ryu. During that fight, both Ken and Sakura fight Bison. Bison beats them while Sagat beats Ryu. Sagat is unhappy about the fight, though, as Ryu wasn't himself, and convinces Ryu to shake off Bison's control. Bison retreats, and is confronted by Chun Li, Guile, and Charlie. During that scuffle, the base starts to collapse/explode, and Charlie gives his life to hold Bison there until it all goes down in flames. Chun Li and Guile escape.
 * Yeah, my Word of God comes heavily filtered third-hand through various Mugen boards, so yours is probably more accurate.
 * Does it really manner? Its not like any character will explicitly acknowledge who beat Bison at the end of Alpha 3. Or II for that matter.
 * How exactly is it possible to fight Akuma without being smashed into the ground? According to most sources, Akuma is more or less the strongest Street Fighter character.
 * Short answer, it's not. Long answer, Gouki was holding back on Ryu during their past encounters. So, therefore there's barely anybody that could stand a chance against Gouki at full power, except Oro. He's around the same level of power as Akuma, but for undisclosed reasons, Akuma didn't fight him. They engaged in a simplistic exploration of each other's power.
 * May I interject, but Oro is way stronger than Akuma. Which is why he binds his arm for his fights against even the strongest of opponents. Now if Akuma and Oro fight at equal strengths as you say with his arm bound, Imagine how much stronger he would be if he unbound his arm. There is more evidence to support this: play 3rd Strike one time with Oro and use a Super Art, say, for instance, his grab super. Notice how he still uses that one arm? Now do that same super move with ALL THREE punch buttons. Notice how he uses both hands? And now it is a One Hit KO.
 * Un, no he's not. The two let out their full power, but didn't actually fight. They came to the conclusion that they'd just kill each other. Oro and him are equals, nothing more, nothing less.
 * Gen, Gill, and Alpha Bison are also around Akuma's power level. Gill did fight Akuma (and even got hit with the Shun Goku Satsu) but survived thanks to his resurrection power.
 * And Dan, of course, has a very logical explanation...
 * Cause Dan's power level is... OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!!
 * Why didn't anyone try to arrest Bison during the time between Alpha 3 and 2 Turbo?
 * Because, technically speaking, he was dead. He used his Psycho Power to stash his consciousness inside Rose, however, and used her until he could clone a new body for himself.
 * Word of God states that he actually was brought to trial after his resurrection at some point, but he merely bribed the judges to let him off scot-free.
 * That god must have been an impersonator then, as there's nothing from official Capcom sources that backs that claim up - everything points to him waiting for his new body to be cloned between the events of A3 and SSF2T.
 * Actually, he's correct, in Gamest's SF 2 Dash's (Champion Edition's) story account of Guile, it's stated that he brought Bison/Vega to court, but got off easy. If you read the Street Fighter plot guide on Gamefaqs, it's Capcom of Japan who wrote the story, so what they say is canon, not Capcom of America.
 * What happened to Vega (the guy with the mask and the claw) after Shadoloo collapsed? Sagat is training, Bison is dead, and Balrog is a bum on the streets.
 * He probably just had better things to do after his whole organization (which was his reason for entering the first few tounaments) was disbanded. It's likely he didn't want risk damaging his face again.
 * He returned to the life of a socialite. A socialite in a mask and silly pants.
 * Whatever happened to Gouken's (Ryu and Ken's master's) daughter?
 * She was in shock after the murder of her father. She ran away, probably lives a normal life.
 * Likely answer: Capcom simply forgot about her existence. Considering that she's never been mentioned in the games and that her only appearance was in an obscure SF I manga (way before Gouken was given a name and a face), chances are that she was never canon to begin with.
 * Wild Mass Guessing: Juri. She might be from Korea and use a Korean fighting style, but no-one ever said she was born there.
 * No, she may be forgotten, but by Capcom of Japan's word, she's still canon. The Street Fighter plot guide in Gamefaqs says that ignorance does not equal denial, so if Capcom of Japan says shes not canon, then she's not, but if they don't mention her that much, she's still canon.
 * That's impossible, Juri's father was a lawyer in charge of prosecuting organized crime operations (including Shadoloo). The whole family was kidnapped, both parents were killed, and Juri lost her eye.
 * Why couldn't Bison levitate during SF 2?
 * The merger with Rose's half of his soul put a serious damper on his powers. Since Rose was the good half of his soul, and Psycho Power works based on negative emotion, he was brought down to a lower level.
 * Actually, it has nothing to do with him having temporarily used Rose, between the two stories. He just clones his body a lot, but some end up being more powerful than others. SFA body > SF 4 body >= SF 2 body.
 * That's probably the official storyline reason, but really it's just because the SFA people just thought he should float, so they put that into his character. Just like how a lot of people look significantly different in the SFA and SF 2 art.
 * Who or what is Q?
 * No one knows. Yet.
 * It is a very good... Question.
 * Why does Birdie comment on how he was white in the first game in his Alpha win quotes when Alpha takes place before the original Street Fighter?
 * Because Alpha doesn't take place before the original Street Fighter; it takes place between Street Fighter and Street Fighter II. Notice that Sagat has the scar on his chest, as well.
 * That's all well and good... but then why the heck is Alpha called Street Fighter Zero in Japan?
 * Gratuitous English.
 * Actually I think that zero is word in Japanese... I've seen a bunch of different manga/anime where "Zero" is part of some thing's name, (for example, the ultimate attack of Saito from Rurouni Kenshin is "zeroshiki"), the main Japanese fighter plane in WWII was referred to as the Zero, etc.
 * The fighter plane was called the Zero because its model number ended in 0, since it was made in 1940.
 * Wasn't the plane actually called Zeka?
 * Zero seems to be used interchangably with Gaiden sometimes.
 * Actually, in Japan, there's no reference to Birdie's skin color change. "Oh, what!? ... Before? I looked pale because I was sick!!" was just something Capcom of USA made up.
 * Crossover question: How in the hell did Dan and Joe wind up winning the Match of the Millenium tourney in the first Capcom vs. SNK game? Word of God states that they won, but it doesn't explain how.
 * Because everyone that could beat them were too busy fighting Rugal/Akuma. They won by default (and maybe beating up some losers who were too weak to even be shown).
 * Dan is a decent fighter. Compared to the likes of Ryu, Iori, and others, Dan is weakling but I'd figure he'd beat any average person in a fight. I can easily see Dan winning a contest that the stronger fighters weren't attending.
 * To say nothing of the fact that Joe's technically no slouch himself, either.
 * Indeed. He's the World Muay Thai champion, and he isn't even Thai! (This may be in dispute. After all, Sagat has the same title in the Street Fighter universe, and some believe that King would have the title if not for a... certain issue.
 * Like Hercule, they probably have good PR.
 * Dan can't pay his phone bill in SFIV; you think he could afford to hire somebody to do PR for his dojo?
 * Sure, the cost of the PR guy prevented him from paying his bill...
 * Well played, Troper, well played.
 * This question is obviously going to answered when Street Fighter IV comes out, but it still bears asking: how in the HELL is Bison alive?! Getting your soul sent to Hell isn't something you can come back from easily.
 * He's just really strong, apparently. I guess Psycho Power lets him manipulate his own soul.
 * It's suggested in both SF 4 and the related media that Akuma never killed/defeated/meet Bison. Instead, Bison blew himself up to not be arrested after being worn out from a fight against Chun-Li, Guile, Cammy, Ryu and Ken.
 * shun goku satsu's fatality is relative. there are ways of surviving it, but the vast majority of people don't know how, or can't think clearly enough to do so. Gen, for example, managed to survive.
 * Speaking of which, why is a sixth of the console roster consisting of characters who have died in canon by the end of Street Fighter II? Admittingly, Gen looks like he crawled out of hell, and whatever brought M.Bison back would also bring back Rose, but even Sakura still looks like a schoolgirl when she should be college-aged.
 * Simple, the creator of SF 4 is an SF 2 fanboy and SF 4 is mostly a dream match game. He could care less about the story unless it has unimportant details such as Ken's baby.
 * Except that SF 4's not a dream match. All of the returning characters, save for Gouken, have been given justifications for their returns and/or appearance - Bison cheated death and transfered his soul into another body again; Rose was simply possesed, not absorbed, by Bison at the end of Alpha 3 and suvived when he got his new body back; Sakura has moved on from high school and uses her old seifuku as a fighting uniform/gi; and considering how some people have resisted fatal diseases for years after their diagnosis, it's not a stretch to think an elderly martial arts master like Gen could've done so as well. The producer is an SF 2 fanboy, yes, but that doesn't mean the game was designed to be outside of canon.
 * Oh and FYI, and of all the characters that return from the "dead" in SFIV, only Gouken was offically declared as dead in canon. Gen and Rose's endings in Alpha 3 were ambiguous and Capcom never bothered to actually say what their fates were post-A3 until they were added to the home version of SFIV.
 * Actually, if you read up about Gouken and Gen in the Street Fighter plot guide on Gamefaqs, it's says that both of them ARE dead, for Gouken, he may have survived the Shun Goku Satsu when he fought Akuma/Gouki, but died of mysterious circumstances that Akuma/Gouki would only know, SIN may have physically resurrected him for BLECE experiments and possibly to lure Ryu, his adoptive son, into said experiments, but has an incomplete memory, for Gen, may have died fighting Akuma/Gouki at one point post-Alpha/Zero 3, or his disease and brought back to life physically for BLECE experimentations like Gouken, though Gouken in SF 4 and SSF4 may be another wink to the Sheng Long hoax.
 * Initially, Word of God was that Bison was dead post Street Fighter 2 via Shun Goku Satsu since Shadoloo is gone by the time Second Impact and Third Strike happen. It's more likely that they opted to retcon that when it was decided that SF 4 would be SF 2.5. It's likely that Gouken survived it in a way similar to Gen: By emptying his soul or embracing Nothingness. Gouki states that Gouken is tapping into the power of Mu in their endings (I forget which).
 * Why does Gouken have a fighting style so dissimilar to Ryu and Ken's? I mean he WAS their master!
 * Perhaps what Ryu and Ken practice is actually an incomplete version of the arts Gouken practiced. Remember, they were still being taught by Gouken when Akuma killed him left him unconscious at the bottom of a waterfall in their fight. It wouldn't be surprising that if Gouken had lived long enough not been knocked out for over 10 years, Ryu and Ken would've learned how to throw two fireballs at once or do a vertical Hurricane Kick.
 * No, they just took stuff from Sheng Long hoax 1997. He stay's dead in Japan because they do not like retconning a lot of things.
 * Gouken didn't want to teach them all of his fighting style, because it's a fighting style made for assassination. He trained them to be great warriors, not killers.
 * He has Hadokens and a variant of Tatsumaki Senpu-Kyaku. But he didn't create the Shoryuken, Ryu and Ken did that together. Remember in SFA 3, during Ken's ending, i believe. He said he was going to defeat Bison using the technique he and Ryu created.
 * When SIN may have resurrected him physically for BLECE experiments (see the Street Fighter Plot Guide for details), they infused him with Goutetsu's cells, which explains why he can pull off the Kinjite shoryuken, a move Goutetsu invented, as well as the Denjin Hadouken?
 * I know this is not a good question to be asking, but what in the name of Torgo is up with the plot in SFIV? Seriously...what...happens? And I do own the prequel film, which does make things a lot clearer (and shame on Capcom for expecting people playing the game to have watched it!)...compared to not knowing the plot at all.
 * What was Balrog's ending in SF 4 about? He just randomly steals a kid.
 * My guess is that the kid will be a fighter in the next game where he will use PSYCHO BOXING!
 * In SSF4, he heavily implies that Bison plans to use the kid as a replacement body. It's also implied that the kid has special powers, and what looks vaguely like the Shadaloo logo briefly appears on his palm, so... yeah.
 * What is the role of those two guys fighting in front of a building and why are neither of them playable?
 * I think those two are supposed to be Joe and Mike from the original Street Fighter.
 * How come that crying guy in Balrog's stage in II always seems to lose a bet? You'd think after the fifth time Balrog punches off a guy's jaw that he'd wise up?
 * He didn't lose any bets. He's just so awestruck by the spectacle that is Street Fighter that he has to rub his eyes afterwards.
 * He always loses bets because he always bets on the wrong person. If Balrog wins, he cries because it means he bet on you, and your loss just cost him a lot of cash. If you win, vise-versa. Gambling doesn't pay :-P
 * Was there any reason that Akuma fought (and killed) Bison?
 * "Power does not belong to the unworthy", or something like that.
 * He apparently killed him for deliberately abusing his powers for personal gain, and to hurt others. In his honor code, Akuma sees no problem with killing in battle, but despises using force to hurt innocents and such outside of combat. I'm not sure, but I think it's the only other time besides Gouken and Goutetsu that Akuma actually sought someone out and killed them.
 * Akuma doesn't give two craps about innocents, actually. His beef with Bison is that Bison's artificially boosting his power with things like the Psycho Drive. He doesn't care about how you use your power, as long as that power was naturally gained - think of him as a one-man version of the Anti-Doping Agency.
 * He DOES have standards as there's artwork of him selling fruit to a kid and All About Capcom had an instance of him rescuing another.
 * Will Ryu ever realize that there's more in life than just fighting, like making a family (Chun-Li is watching you!), passing on his skills to the new generation, and staying in the kitchen?
 * He has said in previous games, I believe MVC 1, as a victory quote, that he thought of settling down and starting a family, but he can't because there is a lot of work left to do. (basically he's married to the job of training.)
 * Maybe he won't. Ken did, however. Let him do what he likes!
 * I don't remember Chun-Li ever showing any romantic interest in Ryu. Or much of anyone for that matter.
 * Ryu x Chun-Li is one of the oldest examples of fandom shipping out there. It predates the internet!
 * Clearly you've not read the short-lived Malibu comics adaptation.
 * Not that anyone will hold that against anyone else.
 * There's heavy implications that Chun Li had feelings for Nash/Charlie during the Alpha storyline (they searched for Vega/Bison under the guise of being married), but, you know...
 * Conversely, Ryu is too much of a Chaste or Celibate Hero to return anyone's affections. Ryu is a Lighter and Softer Mix and Match of a Blood Knight and Spirited Competitor; to him, it's all about training and bettering himself through battle. Thus, he probably wouldn't go after Chun-Li nor would he reciprocate Sakura's admiration-borderline-schoolgirl crush. He's definitely friends with them, but I definitely don't see either of them becoming Love Interests to Ryu. Plus, shouldn't the fact that Chun-Li is too involved in her life's work to marry herself (and thus adopts by the time of 3rd Strike) put a rest to the notion that Ryu and Chun-Li would hook up?
 * Not really as you can tell this part of Street Fighter's JBM is a bit of a Take That towards how Street Fighter is fairly accused of Status Quo Is God. (Especially for Ryu's "Wandering Traveler" persona though Chun-Li has received accusations of this as well though not as much but its probably due to how the series has played the idea of her remotely wanting a "normal life".) Some want Capcom to delve into this even more if Ryu and Chun-Li are still blatantly just friends because they think it potentially bring an interesting change of pace. But yes they are just friends in the games (though the fact that the most popular pairings for her are Ryu, Ken, Guile and Charlie and Ryu is the only one among the four that are not Happily Married or dead does help a little.)
 * Incidently, if you beat C. Viper with Ryu in Arcade mode for SSIV he says something like "Start a family? Maybe someday, but not right now. I still have too much to learn!" for his win quote.
 * How old are some of these characters supposed to be. Chun li looks the same in Street fighter III as she does in the earlier IV. Makoto and Ibuki have apparently not aged much either since the 4th game. It's hard to get a bead for how much time is passing between games, to say nothing of the confusion of numbering.
 * Comic Book Time seems to be in effect.
 * Especially since after SSFII, Capcom stopped giving exact birthdates for the characters, only the month and day. To wit: Ryu was born July 21, 1964. Alex was born August 3. Which year? I don't know!.
 * Actually, Street Fighter 1 went by release date (1987). Street Fighter Alpha 2 (which removed Alpha 1 from canon) takes place late 1987 - early 1989, so Final Fight (which exists in the SF universe) took place in 1987 like Street Fighter 1. Final Fight 2 took place in the middle of 1988, to explain Guy's absence in Final Fight 2. With that, the Slam Masters/Muscle Bomber subseries took place 1981-1982 going by Haggar running for mayor of Metro City in the Japanese version, which is the canon version, not the American version FYI. Final Fight Streetwise even confirms Final Fight 1 in 1987 with Haggar's election poster in Haggar's gym saying "Vote Haggar for 1982" or something like that. Street Fighter Alpha/Zero 3 took place 1989 - early 1990. Proof comes with Cammy being 16 when Delta Red found her (circa 1990), and that she's 19 in SF 2, which occurs in 1993. As for Final Fight 3/Rough, it took place 1991, because Japanese sources state Haggar left office in 1992, so 1991 for 3. SF 4 took place in 1994, while Super SF 4 took place after SF 4, SF 3 took place 1998-1999.
 * How does Guile's Sonic Boom technique, a destructive energy attack, defuse a bomb?
 * How do you pronounce "Ryu"? A lot of fans say it's "Ryu", as do most Japanese versions say. Most English dubs say it like its pronounced though, "R-you" or "Re-you". Why can't they get the characters' names right?
 * An image of him from Capcom Design Works (page 67, I believe) is captioned with the characters "ri," small "yu," and "u." A small character truncates the vowel sound of the preceding character, so the pronunciation is therefore "Ryuu." If it was supposed to be pronounced "Rai-you," then the characters would be "ra," "i," and "yu."
 * Where does anyone get "Rai-you" out of "Ryu"? So, it's "R-you"? The movie does say "Ryuu", but I've seen other official works say "Roo".
 * So.. What is everyone speaking? Their native language? What about when they talk to each other? English?

The Western Animated Series

 * Why is Chun-Li Ambiguously Brown in this series?