Sandbox / Street Fighter Alpha

Charlie

Paradoxical Avenger

^{Street Fighter Alpha} 

If you stand in my way... I will kill you.

Origin: USA

Fighting style: Special Forces Training
Appears in: SFA, SFV

Voiced by: ^note Toshiyuki Morikawa (Street Fighter Alpha series, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom 2), Kosuke Toriumi (Street Fighter V; Japanese), Daiki Nakamura (Street Fighter Alpha CD dramas), Mike McFarland (Street Fighter V, English)

Portrayed by: ^note Robert Mammone (Live-Action Movie)

Full name Charlie Nash. Guile's late combat buddy as mentioned in his ending in II. He was sent to investigate Shadaloo due to them causing corruption in the military, as well as their involvement in global drug trading. He eventually confronts Bison, but ends up dying by his hand, with each of the Alpha games giving possibilities as to his fate. Depending on the game, he is either killed by Bison directly (Alpha 1), betrayed by his fellow Air Force unit and shot via helicopter before being sent careening off a Venezuelan waterfall (Alpha 2), or dies sacrificing himself to hold Bison off as his base explodes (Alpha 3^* In Guile's ending). It was strongly suggested that Charlie was still alive, as there was no trace of any bodies at the site where he presumably died. In addition, it was revealed that he was the one who rescued Abel from the Shadaloo base where he was being held.

Charlie returns as a playable character in V bearing a stitched-up body à la Frankenstein's Monster. It is revealed that his Alpha 2 ending is the canon one, and he survived the fall, being saved by a Russian woman named Helen. After learning of his betrayal, and the fact that he has been written off as dead by the military, Nash is left only with hatred and rage, swearing that he will kill Bison by any means necessary.

For his debut in Alpha, Charlie was mainly added as a simple replacement for Guile to fit in with the lore. As Guile's friend and mentor, Charlie uses a more stylish version of Guile's moveset that is more focused on offense and pushing the opponent backwards until they find themselves cornered. V, however, brought him back from a long hiatus, in the process completely revamping his entire moveset. Coinciding with this, the game also refers to him by his last name of Nash, and fittingly so considering that the changes made to his moveset practically make him an entirely different character from who he used to be. In V, Nash is more of a hit-and-run type character whose main priority is to frustrate the opponent through his unique set of tools at mid-range, making sure not to get hit while at the same time making it difficult for them to approach him.

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• The Ace: Charlie taught Guile everything he knew and is noted to be his better when it comes to fighting, as seen with his one-handed and leg-fired Sonic Booms and backwards Somersault Shell. His memory inspires Guile throughout the events of II and IV.
• Anime Hair: Sports an exaggerated, 90° forelock.
• Anti-Hero: A very dark example. Charlie's desire to kill M. Bison, while fundamentally good, is born from his desire for revenge, and he is willing to do almost anything if it means accomplishing his goal, up to and including killing his former friends if necessary.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: He's skilled at analyzing opponents.
  My conclusion: your chances of winning a rematch are below 5%.
  If you can analyze and predict, fighting is actually quite simple.
  Dead or alive, if your moves are so obvious, they'll never work on anybody.
  (Vs. Vega) I can read your moves. I've always been able to, ever since back then...
• Badass Bookworm: A college graduate with a major in biology. One of his winposes has him pull a book out of his vest and start reading.
• Back for the Dead: The cinematic story mode reveals that this is his sole purpose for returning. He briefly fights alongside his former allies, and then sacrifices himself when he realizes that he can't stop Bison, but Ryu can, so he uses every last bit of strength that he has to weaken Bison enough so that Ryu can finish him off.
• Big Brother Mentor: Charlie was Guile's closest friend and taught him everything he knew about fighting. To this day, Guile still cherishes his memory.
• Blow You Away: Charlie's ki and associated attacks are wind-based.
• Body Horror: In V, he’s been crudely put back together in the form of a Frankenstein's Monster. His body is covered in staples, and his right forearm, right shoulder, and part of his head has been replaced with ashen gray transplants.
• Break the Badass: Despite being a living exemplar of justice, Charlie is routinely rewarded with betrayals and tragedies throughout his backstory. Upon his return in V, he questions just what use it is to help others, when all he was rewarded with was pain and suffering.
  Family, friendship...what good comes from those things?
• Broken Pedestal: To Guile as of V.
• The Bus Came Back: For V. And it only took 17 years! And as for Capcom denying his death, that turned out to be a lie.
• Calling Your Attacks: "Sonic (Boom)!" "Summasault!" "Sonic Break!" "Somersault...JUSTICE!".
• Came Back Wrong: In V, he's had stitches and metal grafts implanted into his skin, as well as a mysterious gem on his forehead — parts of his skin appear to be already be going through necrosis. It is revealed that Kolin, and the Illuminati/Secret Society by extension, are behind this. The skin grafts are actually the dismembered limbs of Eleven, the predecessor of Twelve, who was deemed a failure by Urien and given to Kolin when he no longer had use for it.
• Can't Catch Up: Despite all the new power he has gained, it’s not enough to defeat Bison. As Bison himself spells it out for him, Nash has already died once. His body has completely ceased to function, and he is more or less on artificial life support, little more than a zombie who could fall apart at the seams at any given moment. Because of this, Nash is stuck at the level of power he was at his time of death, which is outclassed by Bison's current, and second-most powerful, body.
• Career-Ending Injury: At the end of Alpha 2. But it appears that somebody had some... interesting ideas about fixing him.
• Cavalry Betrayal: His Alpha 2 ending, in which a U.S. fighter jet that Charlie previously called for backup shoots him off a cliff, their squadron commander having been bribed the by Bison. V confirms that this was Charlie's canon fate.
• Charge-Input Special: Courtesy of being built off of Guile's moves, Charlie in Alpha uses charge inputs for his specials. His revised moveset in V ditches the concept for him altogether, turning his specials into more standard quarter-circle inputs.
• Choke Holds: One of Charlie's grabs in V has him slip behind the opponent, put them in a sleeper-hold, and then toss them aside, all while shouting "Go to sleep!".
• Composite Character: The live-action movie merged him together with Blanka.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Although generally serious, in Alpha 3, Charlie gains a win-quote: "I'm sorry. Are you mad at me? Did I 'tick' you off?" He's referring to "tick throws", a strategy of utilizing throws common to Guile that frustrated opponents to no end in II.
  • Charlie's Judgement Saber Critical Art in V bears resemblance to Shadow's Final Mission super, even down to the sinister gleam.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Charlie appears to die in the story of every single game he appears in, and it's never truly dignified. V confirms that his Alpha 2 ending, in which he's betrayed and machine-gunned over a waterfall by his own corrupt Air Force officers, is his true canon death — a brutally cruel way to go. In V's cinematic story, even though he does get something resembling a Heroic Sacrifice by helping Ryu finish Bison for good, he dies as a tragic Revenant Zombie.
  Bison: A pity, that you shall die so young...
• Death by Origin Story: Was a victim of this before he made his first official appearance.
• Death Glare: Gives his opponent a menacing one right before unleashing Judgement Saber.
• Deadpan Snarker: In the Alpha series. This is surprisingly carried over to V, although toned down like most of his endearing traits. He can be heard muttering "Too easy..." after performing his Critical Art, and one of his win poses has him Face Palm and mutter about how the fight was a waste of time.
• Death Seeker: Many characters' win quotes against Nash in V outright state that at his core, all he really wants is to rest in peace. And they'd be half-correct, Nash DOES want to die, but on his own terms, knowing that he accomplished what he set out to do before his unjust and untimely first demise - bringing Bison to justice.
• Defiant to the End: Spends his last few minutes fighting Bison, and, according to accompanying comics, mocking Bison's failure every second of them.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: His V arcade mode ending has him deal the final blow to Bison rather than Ryu, but he still ends up giving his life in the process. This time he dies in Guile's arms with a smile on his face.
• Disproportionate Retribution: His win quotes against Cammy and Chun-Li in V shows that his obsession with revenge has so blinded him to reason that he is perfectly willing to kill his former allies if they get in his way.
  (Vs. Chun-Li) Get in my way again, and I'll kill you where you stand.
  (Vs. Cammy) If you were his servant, then you are just as guilty. Prepare to repent.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Nash used to be a charge character, playing almost exactly like Guile, but in V he is a motion character with a more offensive edge. Being an advanced Revenant Zombie on borrowed time, he's not going to get his tasks done by turtling around.
• Doomed by Canon: Since Guile needs his best buddy to stay dead in order to have the motivation to tear out Bison's spinal cord and jam it up his ass, Charlie must die in every ending to keep the universe from going out of whack. In the original Alpha 3, Charlie actually survives, but Guile's inclusion in the home ports rectified this "oversight". Later on, the story of V retcons Charlie and Guile out of Alpha 3, making Charlie's Alpha 2 ending, where Bison bribed a US Air Force pilot to gun him down, his canonical ending.
• Dub Name Change: Nash in Japan, Charlie everywhere else. Guile is seen holding a "Charlie Nash" dog tag in his IV story mode, consolidating the full name in canon and allowing Capcom to safely bill him as Nash across all regions in V.
• Eagleland: Heavily Type I, though fortunately not in an irritatingly stereotypical way. He's basically Guile turned up a notch.
• Enemy Rising Behind: His "Judgement Sabre" Critical Art in V. Charlie teleports towards his opponent who becomes surrounded by a black mist. While the opponent is confused, Charlie rises up behind them, a sinister gleam flashing across his glasses, and he slams a vertical Sonic Hurricane into their head.
• Energy Absorption: Nash's V-Skill, "Bullet Clear", lets him reach out and pluck projectiles out of the air, transforming them into energy for the V-Trigger. This becomes a crucial plot point in the Cinematic Story Mode where he uses his power to drain Bison of his Psycho Power and weaken him enough for Ryu to finish him off.
• Facepalm Of Doom: "Tragedy Assault" looks extra brutal when you have Nash grappling his opponent face first onto the ground.
• Facial Horror: A good third of his face is composed of ashen grey skin held together by massive staples, plus a gem embedded in his forehead. The grey skin is from Eleven, a prototype of The Illuminati's project Twelve from III.
• Fan Disservice: In Alpha he was an incredibly handsome man, loved by both fangirls and fanboys alike. In V, the Body Horror that he was subjected to has left horrifying marks not only in his psyche, but on his body.
• Flash Step: His "Sonic Move" V-Trigger allows him to teleport above, behind, or in front of his opponent.
• Foregone Conclusion: He dies in all of his endings, including X-Men vs. Street Fighter. The only exception is Alpha 3, although they "fixed" this "oversight" by having him die again in Guile's ending for the console versions.
• Foreshadowing: The IV Character Relations Chart reveals that Charlie raided a Shadaloo base and rescued Abel, purportedly in the interim between Alpha 3 and IV, providing an early hint towards his return to the series in V and grudge against Bison.
• Frankenstein's Monster: His appearance in V evokes this, with stitched-together flesh on his face, forearm and torso made more obvious because said flesh is a different, darker colour. For Halloween, his costume takes it even further, with neck bolts added to make the connection even more obvious.
• The Glasses Come Off: His fight intro in the Alpha series.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: In V, it's clear that the process used to revive him has left him a mismatched horror, complemented with a shift to a far darker personality and by further association, move-set. The mismatched appearance and unnatural powers may be related to the revival process, but his new ruthless approach has everything to do with the events that put him in the grave.
• Grapple Move: A variant in the "Tragedy Assault", in which Charlie performs a flying leap and slams his opponent into the ground face first before infusing them with Ki and tossing them away.
• Gratuitous English: In V, Kosuke Toriumi calls out most of his attacks in English, including the Sonic Boom and Sonic Scythe. Additionally, he can be heard muttering "Too easy!" in english after performing Judgement Sabre.
• Heel Realization: Charlie's win quote against Necalli seems to indicate that even he knows that he is going too far in his pursuit of revenge. Even more chilling is his winquote against Seth, who also wants revenge on Bison.
  (Vs. Necalli) I have no intention of losing. Especially in a battle between monsters...
  (Vs. Seth) Are you insane...? Heh. Guess I could ask myself the same question.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Guile's Alpha 3 ending has him staying behind to kill a freshly regenerated Bison and destroy the Psycho Drive. V retcons this and confirms that his Alpha 2 ending is his true death. In the cinematic story mode, he finally gets a proper and dignified sacrifice, giving up his life to de-power Bison as much as possible so that Ryu can destroy his body.
• He's Back!: Charlie makes his triumphant return in V... Though not as we remember him.
• Home Stage: Like his army buddy Guile, his stages usually feature military-themed elements, including "Detroit Highway" from Alpha 2 (which features a hovering Harrier jet), and also "Frankfort Hanger" from Alpha 3, set in a military base.
• Hunk: In V there's a mod that renders him shirtless to further drive this home.
• Identity Amnesia: UDON Comics' graphic novel The Life and Death(s) of Charlie Nash cites that this is what happened to him. In the actual story, it only happens briefly, and he eventually remembers everything.
• I'll Kill You!:
  • His intro in V has him threatening to kill his opponent if they stand in his way and his winquote against Bison has him declaring he came back to kill him. Both are signs that Charlie is Not Himself.
  • His Critical Art activation quote; "I'll end you!"
• Informed Ability: The Sonic Boom (specifically, his variant) was given its name because he's supposedly able to create a sonic boom. In gameplay, it's no faster than any of the other projectiles.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: In V, Urien only ever refers to him as "it", or as a doll or puppet.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Despite his bluntness, his V win-quotes (death threats aside) include calling out Rainbow Mika for fighting far outside her element, lecturing Karin on her raging overconfidence, and remarking on how Ryu isn't as strong as he could be due to suppressing the Killing Intent. The latter example also counts as major foreshadowing.
• Justice Will Prevail: "Until every sin and atrocity is punished by justice, my duty will not be complete!"
• Ki Manipulation: Like Guile, he can control wind ki, with all of his special moves utilizing it to some degree. Both the Sonic Boom and the Super equivalent, "Sonic Break", creating spinning discs of energy that can slice his target. His Flash Kicks meanwhile focus Ki into his legs.
• Killed Off for Real: In pretty much every game, with Alpha 2 and V being the canon examples.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: After getting curb-stomped by Bison after his resurrection, Nash gets the heck out of dodge when he realizes he’s outmatched. He didn't give up on his goal of killing Bison but knew he wouldn't be the one to finish the job.
• Last-Name Basis: In the international versions of the game, he is normally referred to as "Charlie" while he's a good guy (at least by friends) but switches to "Nash" after returning with a darker and ruthless personality. This also has the benefit of standardizing his name across all regions, as he was always called Nash in Japan.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Served as one to Guile. After his first death, Guile turns extremely bitter and introverted. Ironically, upon his return, Nash himself would do exactly the same.
• Living on Borrowed Time: In V, Kolin reveals that he was only brought back to destroy Bison and only has a short time left before his body gives out and he dies again. Charlie is well aware of this.
• Mana Drain: Using the Tragedy Assault will drain the enemy of a portion of Critical Gauge and boost Nash's own.
• Meaningful Name:
  • His Alpha 3 theme is named "Decisive Bout", and also happens to refer to his fight against M. Bison, one of the most significant fights in the series. It finishes with Bison's strongest body destroyed, the Psycho Drive in ruins, and Shadaloo temporarily crippled. It also leads to the formation of S.I.N and Abel being rescued from Shadaloo. Unfortunately, it ends with Charlie missing, and, as V shows, mortally wounded and mutilated.
  • His "Paradoxical Avenger" title in V. His body is mortally wounded and physically dead, yet he's traveling and scouting enemies, essentially a dead man walking.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: His end comes before he even has a chance to finish teaching Guile.
• Mix-and-Match Man: He returns in V with a stitched together body. Urien's character story reveals that the green parts of his body come from Eleven, the prototype for Twelve.
• Mr. Fanservice: Already very handsome, he sports nothing but pants and a flak jacket, exposing his ripped physique. The comics make a big deal of emphasizing his abs and muscles. Even in V where Charlie is mutilated, the flak jacket only exposes the intact parts of his torso, which just so happens to include his abs.
• Never Found the Body: Bison, grand master of the Villain Ball that he is, decided that searching for his body wasn't necessary. The Illuminati, on the other hand, were smart enough to decide otherwise. Lo and behold, Charlie is shown to be alive and well (to a degree) in V.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: While his personality is more sinister, it's clear that whatever procedure was used to bring him back has made him significantly stronger, allowing him to utilize teleports and a strange, dark green shadow mist for his Super.
• No Body Left Behind: In the General Story of V, absorbing Bison's Psycho Power causes his body to overload and results in an explosion that only leaves his dog tags behind for Guile to collect.
• No Place for Me There: In V, despite succeeding in killing Bison and saving the world, Charlie feels he has little reason to continue living. The military, who betrayed him, has written him off as legally dead, and he knows full well he's on borrowed time, viewing his unnatural resurrection as an abhorrence.
  There is no future for me, just as there is no longer one for you.
• Not Himself: In V, Charlie's behavior is much more serious and menacing, coldly announcing to his opponent that he will kill them if necessary and gone is the cool, snarky, level-headed partner and mentor to Guile from the Alpha series.
• Not So Above It All: Despite his obsession with revenge in V, he isn't above making a few sarcastic quips to his foes ("Too easy!"), just like he did in the Alpha series. This is a hint that the old Nash is still in there somewhere.
• Obi-Wan Moment: Holding off Bison at the end of Alpha 3 to ensure that he wouldn't escape the explosion. Retconned and replaced by V with him draining Bison's Psycho Power until he can't take anymore in order to weaken him enough for Ryu to finish him off.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The man who advocates a cool-headed efficient fighting philosophy goes and tracks down M. Bison on his own while he's in no condition to fight, then refuses to either pull back and recover or accept Guile's help when the latter catches up to him. Even Guile can tell he's obviously not thinking straight, and it only goes downhill from there.
• Our Zombies Are Different:
  • The CG opening in which he appears in a cracked open grave is not just for show. Several win quotes by characters in V note that Charlie may be up and walking around, but his body is physically dead, which Kolin later confirms. In his story mode, Ed taunts him by saying his body probably won't last very long.
    Karin: Every living thing has a weakness, but I guess that wouldn't apply to you.
    Necalli: Living or dead, in my stomach, all are equal. There's no es... escape.
    Ed: That doesn't matter. I'd be more worried about yourself. Aren't you supposed to be dead? Since you're oblivious, here's some free advice: Dead bodies generally don't move around or fight people. I wouldn't bet much on your body lasting too long.
  • In his win quote against Necalli, he describes their fight as a "battle between monsters".
• Passing the Torch: Charlie attempted to pass his fighting style on to Guile, but the events of Alpha 3 occurred before he could do so, leaving Guile to fill in the gaps on his own.
• Patriotic Fervor: "You've got talent. Uncle Sam could use you."
• Perpetual Frowner: In V. It comes with his Darker and Edgier attitude.
• Power Trio: Composed of him, Chun-Li, and Guile in the Alpha series.
• Power Up Letdown: He gains new power post-resurrection to help him defeat Bison, but it turns out that his dead body has reached the utter peak of what it will ever do, since the SF world measures power through spirit and resolve. Kolin is FURIOUS when Charlie tells her that her resources aren't enough to win, but Charlie is well aware of his limits and what he can and can't contribute to the final battle.
• Professional Killer: His V stat card lists "Assassination" among his hobbies, although it may be less that he kills for others and more that he kills for himself.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: The glasses are just for show, as Charlie actually has perfect eyesight.
• Redemption Equals Death: After getting his ass handed to him on a silver platter by Bison and realizing that in his current state he cannot hope to defeat him, Nash remembers the importance of trust and friendship, fighting alongside his allies one last time until Ryu shows up, at which point he sacrifices himself honorably to secure Ryu's victory.
• Redemption Rejection: In his win quote against Gill, he coldly refuses the would-be savior's offer to live in peace and harmony within his utopia. But before he ultimately declines Gill's offer there's a moment of hesitation, indicating he no longer sees himself as worth saving.
  I don't know who you are...but I don't need anything from you. Be gone.
• Ret-Canon: His condition in V is pretty much a variation of his Shadow incarnation in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter.
• Retcon: V ignores the events of Alpha 3, confirming Charlie's fate was decided during his ending in Alpha 2, where he's shot in the back by a traitorous chopper pilot, meaning he never committed the Heroic Sacrifice of staying behind to detain Bison when the Psycho Drive was destroyed in 3.
• Revenant Zombie: His murderous hatred for Bison in V makes him a variant. Key word being variant, as it turns out he still possesses his own mind and is not acting in any way like a zombie, he's just incredibly pissed off and paranoid and burning with hatred and running low on time.
• Revenge: Carving a path of vengeance through those who wronged him is Charlie's sole stated purpose in V. And Bison is on the top of his hit list.
  I came back to kill you! Nothing more. Nothing less.
• Revenge Before Reason: Charlie will kill M. Bison, no matter what it takes or who he hurts in the process. This goes as far back as when he headed after Bison in Brazil despite not being medically cleared for duty, and after said decision got him beat with Psycho Power, betrayed by his own men, machine-gunned off a waterfall, and revived by The Illuminati using a Super Prototype vessel, his hotheaded zeal for vengeance was only further entrenched.
• Rise from Your Grave: The V intro trailer shows him having nightmares about his betrayal and death before waking up and frantically rising from a cracked grave.
• The Rival: He has a friendly, yet firm rivalry with Guile.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Nash will kill Bison, along with anyone who gets in his way.
• Rule of Symbolism: His V-Skill is very similar to Bison's. It shows the current darker Nash's obsession with the man and that Nash is becoming everything he hated.
• Sacrificial Lion: His death is usually used to portray just how much control Shadaloo really has behind the scenes (in the case of Alpha 2), how resilient Bison is (Alpha 1), or to show that even when Bison loses, at most it is a Pyrrhic Victory for the heroes (Alpha 3).
• Same Character, But Different: In V, different might be understating it a bit. Invoked in-game, as he is referred to as "Nash" at all times except by Guile himself instead of his first name Charlie, because the Charlie in Alpha died a long time ago, figuratively and literally.
• Sense Loss Sadness: According to his win quote against Honda in V, Nash has lost at least his sense of taste after becoming undead. At least.
• Senseless Sacrifice: While destroying the Psycho Drive was certainly an admirable way to go, it only temporarily throws a wrench in Bison's plans. By the time of IV, Bison has a body almost as strong as his Alpha incarnation and the resources to begin reconstructing the Psycho Drive, making Charlie's Obi-Wan Moment almost meaningless. And then V retcons it away completely.
• Shadow Archetype: Charlie in V serves as a dark reflection of where Guile's obsession with vengeance against Bison would've taken him.
• Shared Signature Move: While introduced after Guile, Charlie is established to be the creator of the Sonic Boom and uses it as part of his move-set. Charlie's mastery is evident by him being able to fire them one-handed as opposed to Guile needing both hands, or firing two in rapid succession.
• Ship Tease: With Chun-Li, prior to his resurrection in V. They even posed as husband and wife for a joint police-military operation.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Prior to V, it was generally accepted that Guile's Alpha 3 ending was Charlie's canon death, but his story mode in V retcons this by confirming that his Alpha 2 ending is his true canon death, retroactively making his Heroic Sacrifice null and void. Turns out this is all so V could give him a more meaningful Heroic Sacrifice.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: To M. Bison in Alpha 3.
• Sickening "Crunch!": His "Target Down" throw in V has him grab the opponent in a chokehold so tight that you hear the opponent's bones crack.
• Sociopathic Hero: Post-resurrection, he doesn’t care about anyone or anything anymore, not even himself. The only thing he wants is Bison’s death, nothing more and nothing less. This turns out to be because he's borrowed time so he can't afford to focus on anything else. And then he gets his wish after his death.
• Sophisticated as Hell: "Be all that you can be, scumbag!"
• Specs of Awesome:
  • Charlie fights without his glasses and doesn't even need to wear them, though the specs remain an emblematic part of his look, and he always sports them in official artwork.
  • The only thing you see of him in the teaser provided by the Capcom Cup 2014 V trailer is his glasses and a close up of his eye and the glowing mark on his forehead.
• Start My Own: Charlie, dissatisfied with his USMAC and Special Forces training, modified them into his unnamed martial art which he later taught to Guile.
• Stealth Expert: His V stat card lists "Stealth" as one of his hobbies.
• The Stoic: He's a tough guy to anger. One of his tactics in battle is keeping a calm, level head. Which really says something about his reaction to Bison.
• Stoic Spectacles: He wears glasses and is extremely cool under pressure.
• Straw Nihilist: Charlie was initially an idealistic soldier with a sense of justice, but the countless tragedies and betrayals in his life and the fragile state of his resurrection have turned him into a bitter, rushed, and cynical man who believes in nothing but death and vengeance.
  (Vs. Dhalsim) God, huh? Even if there is a god, he's got nothing to do with me.
  (Vs. Zangief) A body is good for nothing in the face of death.
  (Generic winquote) There is no future for me, just as there is no longer one for you.
• Tarot Motifs: Charlie represents Wheel of Fortune in the 30th Anniversary Tarot Deck. The Wheel of Fortune represents the cycle of life and changing fates, symbolizing Charlie's ever-changing status of being alive and dead, and his repeating fate to die by Bison's hand.
• Technician vs. Performer: The Performer in comparison to Guile. Charlie's moves look a lot more effortless, creative and flashy, whereas Guile just sticks to the basics.
• That Man Is Dead: Invoked. The soldier of justice who was Charlie, Guile's friend and mentor, died at Bison's hands. Now, there is only Nash — a ghost from the past who lives only to take revenge on the one who murdered him and destroyed his ideals.
• Theme Naming: Many of Charlie's attacks are prefixed with "Sonic" to indicate that they are modifications of his original moves, as is the case with "Sonic Move" and "Sonic Scythe". The others are named after some aspect of his emotions or personality, in the case of "Tragedy Assault" and "Judgement Sabre".
• This Cannot Be!: Nash's English cry of defeat in V is "It can't be over!"
• Took a Level in Cynic: At first, Charlie was an idealistic young man with a fervent and strong sense of justice. But the countless tragedies and betrayals he endured in his life, combined with his resurrection from the dead and his body's decaying state, have turned him into a bitter, cynical, and impatient man who views ideals such as family, friendship, and justice as worthless. In essence, he's a darker version of Guile.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After he Came Back Wrong in V, he's become a lot more brusque and rude, often insulting his opponent's values or expressing his intent to kill them.
  (Vs. Ken) Family? Friendship? What good comes from those things?
  (Vs. Karin) Just as confident as ever, I see. That's what led to your downfall.
  (Vs. Alex) If you're not prepared for death, then never raise your fist before another person again.
  (Vs. Akira) Keep your enthusiasm away from me.
• Tragic Bromance: To say that Charlie's death affects Guile heavily may just be the understatement of the century. Unfortunately, Charlie's revival does not make this any better.
• Tragic Hero: A paragon of justice and virtue who was betrayed and left for dead by the very military he served. Now he's back as a vengeful revenant driven solely by his searing hatred for Bison.
• The Undead: In V, it's stated that Charlie is still technically dead, and his body only has a short amount of time before it fails.
• Undeath Always Ends: It's made clear that his days are numbered after his resurrection in V. He goes out in a Heroic Sacrifice to weaken Bison near the end of the Story Mode.
• The Unfettered: Charlie will kill Bison, no matter what it takes or who he has to take out to do it. Even if it's Guile.
• Unwitting Pawn: To the Illuminati. Kolin only resurrected him because she and Gill wanted to see if it was even possible, as well as to use him to potentially fulfil their organization's prophecy early (as it states a fair-haired man will be the one to save the Earth). Their experiment was a success, but he ends up dying again and it is Ryu, not Nash, who fulfils the prophecy.
• We Can Rebuild Him: After his canon death at the end of Alpha 2, as of V, Charlie has large, oddly-colored chunks of skin sewn together, showing he had to have some pretty major surgery in order to survive his ordeal. That same procedure has also imbued him with Psycho Power-like abilities, such as teleportation.
• We Used to Be Friends: V features both him and Guile as playable characters. Sadly, their reunion isn't a pleasant one, as Nash is scarred by betrayal, no longer trusts anyone, and knows that Shadaloo has moles and spies in many high ranking world government positions.
  (Vs. Guile) I have nothing left to say to you.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: In V; Charlie was once a paragon of justice and virtue, but was betrayed by his fellow Air Force comrades during an ill-fated fight with Bison. The fight cost him his life and though he was resurrected, he's left with nothing but a burning hatred for Bison and a desire for revenge. Fittingly, his story mode is titled "The Man Who Lost It All".
• Worthy Opponent:
  • In the UDON comic book series, he and Guile spar for an entire day, to the point Guile misses his anniversary. The two call it off when neither man can get a one-up on the other and decide a stalemate might be a better use of their time.
  • Bison considers Charlie one of the only protagonists worthy of a serious fight, as demonstrated in their pre-fight banter in Alpha 3.
• Would Hurt a Child: In his story mode in V, he encounters Ed. Upon seeing the Shadaloo insignia on his hand, he grabs him by the collar and demands to know where Shadaloo is, clearly intending to use violence to get him to talk.
  Ed: Assaulting a minor is illegal, you know. Better watch out!
• Wrestler in All of Us: The "Dragon Suplex" (aka full nelson suplex), and the "Target Down", a Roddy Piper-style sleeper hold modified into a choke.
• You Shall Not Pass!: In Alpha 3, he engages Bison in battle in the midst of the exploding Psycho Drive in order to allow Guile and Chun-Li to escape, as well as to prevent Bison himself from escaping the blast.

Rose

Soul Power Savant

^{Street Fighter Alpha} 

What's the meaning of fate? You shall know.

Origin: Italy

Fighting style: Soul Power
Appears in: SFA, SFIV, SFV (DLC)

Voiced by: ^note Yuko Miyamura (Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2), Michiko Neya (Street Fighter Alpha 3, Namco × Capcom), Ai Orikasa (Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation; Japanese), Akeno Watanabe (Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter V; Japanese), Gina Grad-Harris (Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter V; English)

An Italian fortune teller who utilizes "Soul Power", considered the pure version of Bison's evil Psycho Power. She confronts Ryu in Alpha 3, warning him about Bison's intent to find a new body, and when Bison is killed, he takes possession of her body so he can wait until he finds a new one. After Bison obtains his new body, Rose is released from his control and seeks to destroy him for good. Her encounter with Bison in Street Fighter IV goes south and she is rescued by Guy. By the time of Street Fighter V, she has taken on an apprentice, a young Egyptian woman named Menat. Though Rose herself is merely alluded to by Menat, she finally returns to the playable roster in Season V of Street Fighter V as part of the final wave of content.

Gameplay-wise, Rose can best be described as a Jack of All Trades. Similarly to the Shotos, she does not excel in any particular area and has options for many situations, inclined towards a defensive play-style. Fitting for her nature as a fortune teller and a magician-type character, Rose is designed around misdirection and mindgames. She carefully strings her opponents along, prodding at them until she is able to force a favorable outcome where she can easily predict their next move and counter it, as if she were bending destiny to her will. To do this, she has an arsenal of strong poking and whiff punishment options, a projectile in Soul Spark that launches deceptively far from her sprite and can be fired at different speeds to throw her opponents' timing off, a series-first projectile reflector in Soul Reflect, a risky but powerful anti-air grab in Soul Throw, and a damaging combo ender and spacing tool in Soul Spiral that makes many of her approaches deceptively safe if performed at the right spacing.

---

• Action Fashionista: Who the hell else fights in a sexy, Chanel-inspired bouclé dress, killer heels, and uses a stole as a weapon?
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Her hair is brown in the cartoon, as well as the GBC game due to palette limitations.
• Anime Hair: One of the series' first ever clear-cut examples. Rose combines a zig-zag forelock that projects a clear foot from her forehead with a veritable wave of long, purple, ever-blowing hair that projects a clear few feet behind her. Her IV appearance makes its shape more discernibly realistic, but in V her hair most closely resembles her artworks, crazily concertinaing out behind her.
• Apologetic Attacker: Rose will frequently ask her opponent, "Are you hurt?" or "Are you all right?" This is much more prominent in her Fighting Your Friend situations.
• Astral Projection: She can seperate her body and soul to communicate with others in the cartoon, and the ability is canon to the games as of SSFIV. She uses it to contact T. Hawk in his ending and tell him that she has found Juli/Julia.
• Attack Reflector: "Soul Reflect" is a special move which can reflect or absorb projectiles with an arcing swipe of Rose's stole.
• Bathing Beauty: Bathing is one of her hobbies, and she's shown enjoying a luxurious bath during both her Alpha 2 and V endings.
• Because Destiny Says So: She believes her fortune telling is infallible; it hasn't been wrong before, but she will reject any attempt to alter it, for good or ill.

• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In V, should Rose win a match while low at health, as she'll praise her opponent for their efforts while glancing towards the player, whether they are directly controlling her or not.
• Calling Your Attacks: She really likes yelling the names of her attacks.
  "Soul Spark!"
• The Chooser of the One: She chooses Ryu as the one to eventually destroy Bison — a feat he achieves at the climax of V’s story mode.
• City of Canals: Her stage in Alpha 2 is set at the Old Port of Genoa, complete with tethered gondolas, opulent architecture, and the Port's famous pirate galleon, which sails into view. This stage, now dubbed ‘Marina of Fortune’ returns in beautifully revamped style as a Nostalgia Level and Rose’s home-stage in V.
• Cleavage Window: Her Mystara robes alternate costume, where her cleavage is easily visible through her top.
• Combat Clairvoyance: Her psychic awareness and ability to see the future supplement her fighting style.
• Combat Stilettos: She wears heels in practically all of her costumes, although she's less of a physical fighter than others.
• Crystal Ball: She uses one to see the future, as seen in her Alpha 2 ending.
• Curtains Match the Window: She has both violet hair and eyes.
• Death Dealer: "Soul Fortune", her V-Skill I in V, allows her to summon tarot cards that provide her with different buffs, and debuffs to her opponents. Not only do the cards depict the same artwork as the 30th Anniversary Tarot Deck, but she also flings said debuffing cards at her opponent in the exact same manner as her intro animation prior to battling Bison in Alpha 3.
• Doomed by Canon: Throughout the Alpha series, her endings always feature her falling to Bison's power, though SSFIV breaks the pattern when Guy saves her life.
• Doppelgänger Attack: She can create illusions of herself that mimic all of her attacks. Her Soul Illusion super in the Alpha series is the first instance, and the ability returns as one of her V-Triggers in V.
• Downer Ending: She rarely gets a happy ending in any of her appearances, either discovering her valiant efforts to destroy Bison have ultimately failed, or receiving a terrifying beating (or full-on possession) at his hands.

• Dramatic Wind: In the Alpha games, her hair is always being blown, as if perpetually caught in a harsh wind. In IV and V, however, her hair is completely stiff, as if it froze in place while being blown by said wind.
• Electric Torture: Her "Illusion Spark" Ultra is an abbreviated version that uses her Soul Power to substitute for actual electricity, shocking the opponent for several seconds.
• The Empath: A lot of her win quotes offer advice, or ask after the feelings and/or provide insight into the destiny of her opponents.
• Energy Absorption: Soul Reflect can fill up her Super Gauge when used with a light punch, while boosting the power of her next Soul Spark.
• Energy Ball: "Soul Spark" fires an energy projectile from her scarf, functioning like her equivalent of the Hadoken.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: As she leaps into the air for her Soul Throw special, she leaves a trail of magical dust behind her.
• Fighting Your Friend:
  • Rose has decided Ryu is The Chosen One, but he is not strong enough to face Bison/Seth. Her common argument is to kick the crap out of Ryu to prevent him from entering the finals, like their rival battle in IV.
  • Likewise, Guy tries to stop her from rushing to face Bison because she has seemingly resigned herself to death.
• Finger Wag: As seen in her win-pose — "Matamata-ne" ("Not yet" / "You're not ready").
• The Force Is Strong with This One: How she feels about Ryu, and the fact that Ryu defeats Bison in V proves her right.
• Fortune Teller: Her character schtick; she can see into the future and uses it as a way to prevent horrible events, like any of Bison's plans coming to fruition. Even her fighting style plays into the theme, requiring really strong prediction skills so she can capitalize on her wide move pool.
• Good Counterpart: Her origin and powers imply that she is Bison's Good Counterpart. While Rose possesses the pure Soul Power, Bison uses the corrupt Psycho Power.
• Grand Theft Me: Rose was possessed by Bison's soul after his death in Alpha 3, though she has no memory of what happened during this period. She was released from his control shortly before II, and she only vaguely knows that said possession actually happened (as alluded to in IV and teased by this artwork of Rose mysteriously examining a spare cap of Bison's◊).
• Heroic Sacrifice: She's prepared to forfeit her life if it's required to stop Bison once and for all, but Guy tells her that "being prepared to die in battle is not the same as offering yourself to death willingly." Similarly, in Dhalsim's path in Alpha 3, he tells her "Young lady, you shouldn't throw your life away so carelessly..."
• Hesitant Sacrifice: One of her remarks during her Rival Battle with Guy in SSFIV has Rose sorrowfully proclaiming, "I do not wish to die."
• Heroic Spirit: She's on a mission to track down evil forces and stamp them out with her Soul Power.
• Hitbox Dissonance: Much like some of the larger characters (i.e. Sagat, T. Hawk, etc.) or the ones with weapons, Rose's stole gives her range, but can also be a double-edged sword as opponents can attack it to damage her.
• Home Stage: She has the “Genoa Port” / "Marina of Fortune" stage in Alpha 2 and V, set in Italy.
• Hot Gypsy Woman: In the Udon comics she is specifically noted as being a gypsy, though in-game, her fortune-telling only invokes this and the term is never used.
• I Sense a Disturbance in the Force: As a fortune teller worried about M. Bison's machinations, she's constantly feeling something is amiss.
• Impossibly-Low Neckline: Her default gown is worn like this, and falls off her shoulders.
• Impractically Fancy Outfit: When Rose debuted in the original Alpha game, her fanciful hair and elaborately feminine costuming — including six-inch heels and a glamorous evening dress topped off with an opulent stole — made her stand out dramatically against her fellow fighters, who were all dressed in much more practical martial arts, military, or street apparel (even Chun-Li ditched her classic qipao for a sportier look in Alpha). Rose’s surprising, seemingly incongruous appearance lent her a sense of intrigue from the get-go.
• Improbable Hairstyle: Aside from the zig-zag forelock on her forehead, the rest of her hair goes straight back, curling and twisting in an even bigger zig-zag. In the Alpha series, it blows in the wind, but in IV, it's completely stiff and stays in that curled form, never moving. In V her hair's appearance most closely matches her artworks, zig-zagging out directly behind her in a stiff concertina.
• Improbable Weapon User: Enchanting her stole with Soul Power, Rose makes full use of its versatility, using its power to augment her punch attacks and for launching almost all of her special moves; Soul Spark, Reflect, Soul Spiral, and her Soul Bind in V, a ground-based anti-air attack.
• In the Hood: Her Mystara robes give her a gypsy hood.
• Kamehame Hadoken: For her Critical Art in V, Fate Aura Spark, she launches her opponent into the air with her stole, flies up to catch them (Soul Throw-style) before blasting them back down to the floor with a huge bolt of purple energy.
• Ki Manipulation: Soul Power seems to be a combination of this and Psychic Powers.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Her dresses and high-heels are rather impractical for street fighting, although she is a bit less physical in her fighting style compared to other characters, relying far more on magic to augment her moves. In later ports of VI and V, it’s possible to download even more elaborate dresses for Rose, cementing her status as the series’ most glamorous fighter.
• Kung Fu Psychic: She is a mystic who fights with Soul Power and her enchanted stole.
• Lady of War: Very feminine, tall and graceful but still badass. She even acts as M. Bison's final boss in the first Alpha game.
• Lady of Black Magic: She's one of the series' purely magic-based fighters, and her moves lack any kind of grounding in traditional martial arts. All of her special moves rely on magic, and quite a few of her standard hits (bar light punches and kicks) are augmented somehow by her Soul Power — for example her fierce punch, where she hits the opponent with her soul-power-infused stole, and also her medium punch, where her fist is surrounded by electrical energy.
• Leg Focus: While she tends to dress more modestly than other examples in the franchise, she gets subjected to Fanservice in her arcade endings in Alpha and V where she's shown bathing while showing off her legs. V, in particular, gives a close-up look of her long, shapely legs sticking out of her bathtub.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: If her hair fell naturally, it would fall well below her waist.
• Mentor Archetype:
  • Considers herself this to Ryu. Street Fighter Alpha: The Movie has her playing the role of Stealth Mentor instead, but her goals are still geared towards helping Ryu stave off the Satsui no Hadou for altruistic purposes.
  • She takes on an apprentice by the time of V, Menat, who treats Rose with the utmost respect and reverence.
• Mind over Matter: Rose can telekinetically levitate herself and objects, as well as the opponent with her throw moves Soul Fall and Soul Loop.
• Mysterious Woman: Embodies some of these traits in-universe, and when she debuted in the arcades, many fans were surprised by her elaborate, fanciful design and connections to Bison.
• No-Sell: Her Soul Power and Bison's Psycho Power are two sides of the same coin, equal but opposite. At best, Rose can only hope to temporarily stop Bison.
• Not a Morning Person: She has low blood pressure, according to one of her quotes, and hates early-rising, according to her bio.
• Of Corsets Sexy: Her fortune teller gown includes a bust-enhancing corset.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: She'll battle the other World Warriors if they get in her way, as she feels it’s her personal duty to stop Bison.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Her fortune teller gown and her flamenco dress are elaborate and chic. Even her standard outfit is glamorously over the top for a fighting game.
• Pirate Girl: Her Battle outfit in V evokes this.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Rose and Guy, though considering how their encounters are written, fans can't exactly be blamed for shipping them.
• Power Floats: In her pre-fight animation, she hovers in place in a meditative pose, surrounded by two orbs of energy.
• Power Glows: Since her technique incorporates Psychic Powers, most of her attacks have accompanying glow effects and Battle Aura.
• Powers Do the Fighting: According to Capcom, Rose has grown powerful and skilled enough by the time of V that she could take much less physical action in battle if she truly wanted to. This was the reason that her anti-air Soul Throw was changed from Rose leaping up to intercept her opponent to simply using her stole to snatch them out of the air. It still mostly remains an Informed Attribute, since she uses physical strikes for most of her attacks.
• Power Tattoo: Whenever she's in her fortune telling attire, a lightning bolt can be seen in the middle of her forehead.
• Psi Blast: Rose imbues her attacks with a magical energy that is a combination of psychic energy and spiritual ki. Soul Drain is a throw move that seems to directly assault the opponent's mind in this way.
• Psychic Powers: Soul Power, thankyouverymuch. Rose possesses many psychic abilities, making her a specialist even when compared to Dhalsim or those using the similar Psycho Power.
• Reverse Shrapnel: Her Soul Satellite Ultra in SSFIV.
• Scarf of Asskicking: She does her asskicking with the scarf (or more accurately, it's a stole). She can perform various feats with it, from reflecting or shooting projectiles to electrocution.
• Seers: Rose is a seer of the future through psychic visions and tarot card divination. Her precognitive visions of doomsday motivate her to fight Bison and Shadaloo. She is also training her apprentice Menat to be a seer.
• Sensor Character: Rose has a unique kind of awareness through her various Psychic Powers.
• Shipper on Deck: According to Rose's winning quote against Rufus in IV, him and Candy are each other's one true loves. She then tells Rufus to take good care of his girlfriend.
• Ship Tease: With Guy. Given their endings in SSFIV and their dialogue during Guy's rival battle with her, it seems almost as if Capcom forgot or handwaved that Guy is Happily Married to Maki's sister Rena by the time Final Fight: Streetwise takes place, and that Rose isn't necessarily the kind to put romance over duty.
• Spider-Sense: Rose possesses a level of Telepathy that allows her to predict (in-universe) her opponents' attack patterns.
  (Vs. Dhalsim) My visions show me from where you will attack before you even move.
• Spoiler: Way back in February 2019, her voice actress in IV, Gina Grad, Tweeted the following, Foreshadowing her appearance in V: "I am Rose in SF4 and I think 5!"
• Statuesque Stunner: She's 5'10" (178cm tall) and the third tallest woman in the series after her fellow Italian Marisa (6'8") and Elena (6'0"). With her long, toned legs and pouting beauty, she qualifies nicely.
• Stocking Filler: Her fortune teller gown is worn with stockings, sometimes with a fishnet knit.
• Street Performer: Her Nostalgia outfit in V features mime makeup and a gondolier costume inspired directly by her ‘Midnight Bliss’ transformation in Capcom Fighting Jam.
• Tarot Motifs: Rose represents The High Priestess in the 30th Anniversary Tarot Deck. The High Priestess represents mystery and magic, fitting with Rose's status as a fortune teller with a magic-based moveset.
• Tarot Troubles: She uses tarot cards in her visions of the future, which often signify terrible things to come, usually because of Bison.
• Telepathy: Her psychic powers grant her deeper insights into people. After defeating Vega in Alpha 3 she is able to find out where Bison is by reading Vega's mind.
• Teleportation: Soul Dimension allows Rose to teleport through space.
• Theme Naming: Almost all of her special moves begin with the word "soul."
• Themed Tarot Deck: In V, Rose's tarot cards now bear illustrations of her fellow fighters as correlative arcana, including herself as The High Priestess and together with Menat on a special card.
• This Is a Drill: Soul Spiral is a ramming attack where she spins her energy-infused stole around her arm and plunges it into the opponent.
• The Tragic Rose: Up until SSFIV her life has been nothing but a litany of getting smacked around or possessed by Bison. Even when she personally defeats him it doesn't stick.
• Vague Age: Rose was designed as an older female character for the series, and is suitably elegant and sophisticated in personality and design. Despite this, she has an ageless quality that is unlike many of the other characters, and she could be anything from her early 30s to late 40s, with any age within these parameters working for her. In the official ALL ABOUT Capcom Fighting Games 1987-2000 series compendium, it states that someone like Chun-Li (around her mid 20s) would consider Rose an ‘Oba-san’ but doesn’t elaborate further than that.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: She has a habit of holding tarot cards between her breasts, although she doesn't necessarily store them there.

Guy

Red Lightning

^{Street Fighter Alpha} 

^{Capcom Fighters Network} 

Behold the art of Bushinryu.

Origin: Japan

Fighting style: Bushin-ryu Ninjutsu
Appears in: SFA, SSFIV

Voiced by: ^note Jim Byrnes (Street Fighter TV Series), Hiroaki Yamada (Final Fight CD), Tetsuya Iwanaga (Street Fighter Alpha series, Namco × Capcom, Final Fight Revenge), Tsuguo Mogami (Super Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter X Tekken; Japanese), Jason C. Miller (Super Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter X Tekken; English)

A Japanese-American Ninjutsu master dressed in an orange-red ninja shozoku and Nike/Converse sneakers. Guy is the 39th successor of the Bushin style of Ninjutsu, a martial arts style dating back to Japan's feudal age. He traveled to America to improve his martial art skills and found himself in Metro City, where he befriended fellow fighters Cody and Haggar and assisted the two in their battle against the Mad Gear gang in the original Final Fight. In the Alpha series, it is established that as a practitioner of Bushin-ryu, he is an upholder of the world's balance, and travels the world as a vigilante bringing an end to several criminal organizations. He develops a new form of Bushin-ryu in the original Alpha, tests his new style against his Master Zeku in Alpha 2, and then finds himself involved with Bison and his organization in Alpha 3. He later appears in Super Street Fighter IV, still seeking to bring his old partner Cody back to the side of good, and to save his friend Rose from her bleak destiny. Despite his steadfast devotion to his duty of carrying out justice in the shadows, he surprisingly has a fiancee, Rena, whose younger sister Maki is Guy's rival for the Bushinryu title.

By the time of Street Fighter 6, he's taken on a new pupil, a young American graffiti artist named Kimberly, who becomes the 40th successor of the Bushin style.

In his home game, Guy is the speed-oriented fighter between Cody (balanced) and Haggar (power). As such, his entry into the world of Street Fighter expands greatly on what was seen of his fighting style in Final Fight, giving him the playstyle of a fast rushdown brawler. Guy boasts some of the best mobility in the games he appears in, being able to cross the screen in seconds with his blistering walking and dashing speeds and far-reaching jump arc. As a ninja, Guy's style also incorporates many deceptive maneuvers, being able to alter his own jump arc with a dropping elbow, command grab opponents who dare try to oppose him head-on midair, and mix up opponents with a command run and command jump which have multiple follow-ups. However, while these attacks can make his pressure terrifying at first glance, they have very noticeable gaps which often leave Guy vulnerable for brief moments, making them very risky and punishing if the opponent guesses or reacts correctly.

---

• Achievement Test of Destiny: Zeku's ending for the Street Fighter 1 / Final Fight arcade mode ladder in V implies Guy doing poorly on his college entrance exam was what drove him to take up Bushinryu.
• Always Second Best: Dialogue from their rival battle implies that Cody tends to win when the two fight.
• Apologetic Attacker: But only if your name happens to be Cody or Rose.
• Armor-Piercing Question: "Cody... WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!". Especially notable because this is one of the few times that Cody responds with any outward emotion.
• Badass Arm-Fold: Rather fond of these.
• Badass Back: One of his taunts. Also appears at the end of his Bushin Musou Renge in IV.
• Badass Boast:
  • "Don't worry. Everyone loses to me!" and "There is nothing you can do that I can't counter."
  • Several of his "generic" win quotes in IV are as such.
    Bushinryu allows me to pierce the sky and split the earth with my blows!
    Never attempt the same move after you have been once thwarted!
    What good is your defense if you cannot keep up with my speed?
• Badass Creed: Gets a few, most notably in IV. They usually double as a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner.
  The power of Bushin-ryuu shall be my quill.
  Kore zo Bushin-ryuu! (This is the Bushin style!)
• Black Screen of Death:
  • The Bushin Musou Renge (or Warrior God's Unmatched Reaping); Guy will perform a grab and, if it connects, the screen will darken like in Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu, as the player watches Guy's silhouette pummelling his helpless opponent.
  • Its changed up a bit as his Ultra in IV. He grabs his foe, starts pummeling them at Super-Speed to the point that he's playing human pinball, and then finally focuses for one last attack (the above trope), with a shakuhachi briefly replacing the BGM. The visual presentation is rather stunning.
• But Not Too Foreign: Given that he's an Asian-looking dude who dresses in ninja fashion and practises Ninjutsu under a Japanese master in Japan, no one would have suspected for him to be American if it wasn't for the information given in his bio in Alpha. His birthplace was originally stated to be Japan in Final Fight, but this was changed to the United States in the Alpha series. According to the V character profiles, his birthplace is once again retconned to be Japan like in the original Final Fight, suggesting he was born in Japan but became a naturalized American by the time of the Street Fighter series.
• Casting a Shadow: During Guy's Bushin Musou Renge, a shroud of darkness blinds his foes while he pummels them into oblivion
• The Comically Serious:
  • In Namco x Capcom, when Janga from Klonoa Heroes calls him a pain in the ass. Guy's response?
  A pain in the ass? Such things are irrelevant in battle.
  • Despite his stoic nature and cool attitude, Guy has a tendency to have very funny reactions when he is beaten in combat, or even just being outsmarted.
    • Whenever you knock him out in IV, he screams out a hilariously awkward sounding "PROFOUND SADNESS!"
    • The face◊ he makes when Ibuki pulls a Smoke Out switcheroo on him, and he finds himself holding her ninja clothes with her pet tanuki Don-Chan in them.
• Delinquent: Believe it or not, he was one before being taken in by Zeku. His training as a Bushin ninja caused Guy to mellow out considerably.

• Female Gaze: His post-match victory artwork in Alpha 3 has him running off to his next objective, providing a nice view of his toned butt.
• Fighting Your Friend: In Alpha 3, he fights Rose in an attempt to dissuade her from fighting Bison in what will clearly result in Rose's death. Unfortunately, he loses that one. In SSFIV, he tries it again. This time, he manages to defeat her, but he fails to stop her. Later he does manage to rescue her from Bison. There's also his two bouts (again, in Alpha 3 and SSFIV) with his somewhat-estranged best friend, Cody, who Guy is trying to redeem. And of course, Maki is trying to defeat him so she can become the next Bushin master.

• Hand Seals: In one of his taunts from Super IV, he casts a whole bunch of those. He usually performs one-handed seals (that's right, Haku's not the only one) quite often.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: He sports a bright red ninja gi as his default outfit — hardly a fitting colour for subterfuge, though in Guy's case he's more of ninja-brawler, so it's mitigated.

• Hurricane Kick: His Bushin Senpuukyaku, a technique he uses as a Desperation Attack in Final Fight. Due to its upward diagonal trajectory, it functions more like a Shoryuken than the traditional Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku.
• I Did What I Had to Do: His mindset. Realizing that his feelings are inconsequential, Guy adopts an "end justifies the means" mentality in his battles.
• Ki Manipulation: In Final Fight 3 and Namco x Capcom, Guy can shoot close ranged bursts of yellow Ki. Unlike most characters, who shoot ki as a projectile, Guy uses it as an enhanced punch/finishing move.
• Leitmotif: In the Alpha series and in IV, his theme is an upbeat reworking of the Slums Area from Final Fight, the very first stage of his debut game. In Namco × Capcom, he is instead given the Bay Area Theme.
• McNinja: Partly; he's a Japanese-American, and some of the win-quotes against him in SSFIV have people not even believing him to be a ninja. Rufus is probably the best example:
  Rufus: Hang on there, bub! You don't look like no ninja to me, man. Where's your scrolls an' your throwing stars, an' your mask? An' what kind of ninja wears sneakers like that? Explain yourself!
• Meaningful Appearance: As opposed to the jika-tabi he wears in Final Fight, Guy switches to sneakers in all subsequent appearances (even Final Fight 3). His change in footwear is explained by him in one of his post-fight quotes from the fourth game.
  Sneakers are well suited to swift footed techniques!
• Meaningful Name: His name in Japanese is actually Gai (ガイ, which is the kanji for "victorious"), but it's usually spelled as "Guy" in English to avoid the obvious mispronunciation. Alternatively, he may have been named after Guy Picciotto, like the other Final Fight characters who are named after rock stars. Both have bangs long enough to cover their eyes.
• Ninja: Guy uses more traditional ninjutsu with street fighting influences, while Ibuki uses a ninjutsu style that fits the popular image of one.
• Not So Stoic:
  • If your name is M. Bison and you're abducting Rose, pray that you do not cross this man on a moonlit night. If your name is Rose, do not appear to be dead.
  • In his battle against Cody in Alpha 3, Guy calmly says that he doesn't like interfering in other people's lives and that everything should be left as is... and then:
  "CODY... WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!!!"
• Ornamental Weapon: Guy was the only Final Fight character in the Alpha series to not use a weapon (Hugo doesn't count as he was in III), but he uses kunai Ninja Blades during cutscenes in IV. He also carries a sword in his alternate costume based on his Final Fight outfit, which is a reference to how he was the most skilled with a Katana in the original Final Fight.
• Perpetual Frowner: He almost always appears glum and serious, with frowning eyes and a downturned mouth.
  • There's a rare official art depicting him, Ken, and Ryu in more casual clothes and the poster in Cody's intro (but he still has his angry eyes in both occasions). He is also presumably smiling when Cody decides to assist him in SFA3. Other than that... played straight.
  • There's artwork◊ of Guy, Maki, and Rena hanging out. The latter is cheerfully clinging onto Guy's arm, while Guy and Maki are somber. Apparently, not even the presence of his own girlfriend/wife can cheer him up.
• Primary-Color Champion: Guy's gi and sneakers are red and he wears yellow fingerless gloves.
• Product Placement: Look at his shoes. See the swoosh? The Nike 'tick' symbol is slightly altered in SSFIV (to the point of Lawyer-Friendly Cameo), but overall the design's still there.
• Protectorate: His case for all of Metro City. Who needs Haggar when you have a ninja doing all of the heavy lifting?
• Red Is Heroic: He's a hero who wears a red gi and sneakers.
• The Rival:
  • With Cody back when they were sparring partners, but now their rivalry is mostly downplayed. Fights between them in the IV series have less to do with who is stronger and instead result from Guy trying to convince Cody to be a hero once again and Cody wanting to alleviate his boredom.
  • Sodom and Maki have a one-sided rivalry with him.
• Ship Tease: He and Rose have a very close relationship and appear in intense scenes which can easily be misinterpreted as sexual tension. He is, however, committed to Rena.
• Sophisticated as Hell: His exchange with Bison in Alpha 2, as well as lines such as "You are so outclassed."
• Speed Echoes: One of his intros in Alpha 3.
• Spell My Name With An S: His Bushin Musou Renge. Whereas Alpha 3 and SSFIV spell it as the above, he and Sho/Ginzu yell the words "BUSHIN MUSOU RENKA!" in Namco X Capcom.
• Spinning Piledriver: His Bushin Goraisenpuujin Ultra Combo ends with a rather impressive one. In that same game, he also gains the Kaiten Izuna Otoshi, an aerial command throw.
• The Stoic: He carries out his duties as a ninja/protector of the world's balance with a professional air of detachment. His grim face rarely shows any emotions, with the only truly noticeable cracks in his composed facade being driven by an occasional shock, such as when he found out what happened to Cody in SFA3, or when Ibuki pulls a ninja Smoke Out on him in the Super IV trailer.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Standing at 5'10", with chiseled facial features.
  Ibuki: Quite a hunk, but the outfit needs to go. You don't look like a ninja at all!
• Verbal Tic: In certain games, he ends his sentences with "-de gozaru" — an archaic form of “desu” and used when referring to oneself — like a stereotypical ninja.
• Wall Jumper: Along with Chun-Li, he's one of the few characters in the series to be able to bounce off any point of the arena wall.
• Warrior Poet: Guy is quite insightful when he needs to be.
• Warrior Therapist: In the Alpha manga, moments before Guy defeats Satsui no Hadou Ryu, he gives him a speech urging him to control his killing intent — while blocking and countering every punch from his deadly Shun Goku Satsu super.

Sodom

The Otaku Fighter

^{Capcom Fighters Network} 

Die job death car? (Daijobu desu ka? - Are you ok?)

Origin: USA

Fighting style: Self-taught martial arts
Appears in: SFA

Voiced by: ^note Wataru Takagi (Street Fighter Alpha series), Sadao Nunome (Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation, Japanese), Robert O. Smith (Street Fighter animated series), Bill Corkery (Final Fight Revenge)

An American Japanophile decked in a Samurai-like armor and helmet, Sodom was a member of the Mad Gear gang, working as an underground wrestling promoter in a secret ring within Metro City's subway system. After the downfall of the gang in Final Fight, he attempts to revive the Mad Gear gang under his leadership, attempting to recruit his former allies, as well as Japanese sumo wrestlers like E. Honda.

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• Ambidextrous Sprite: His failed attempt to write "死" (a kanji that means "death") on his chest plate is mirrored when he swaps sides in the Alpha games, though it makes little difference as it’s wrongly written and meaningless in the first place.
• Anti-Villain: Despite trying to rebuild a gang that terrorized Metro City for years, he isn't precisely evil, especially when compared to the other bad guys of the series. He saves Rolento in the latter's Alpha 3 ending, and seems to have befriended E. Honda after the events of Alpha 2. See Molotov Truck below for more.
• Bowdlerise: Renamed "Katana" in the SNES ports of Final Fight and Alpha 2 due to his name bearing religious references. Not to mention other things...
• Cool Mask/Cool Helmet: Sports a traditional samurai kabuto.
• Dual Wielding: Armed to the teeth with either dual sai, or even katanas.
• Dumb Muscle: Although he doesn't tend to show any truly egregious stupidity, his bungled attempt at Japanese evokes this.
• Evil Counterpart: He may not be explicitly evil, but he's certainly the flipside to Guy's coin.
• Foreign Culture Fetish: Sodom is a major Japanophile, as evidenced by his clumsy attempts at the language in many of his win-quotes, and his stages in Alpha 2 & 3, which are basically shrines to Japanese iconography.
• Funny Background Event: In USFIV, the Mad Gear Hideout becomes one of the fighting stages... which includes Sodom and Co. throwing an epically-rocking kabuki festival, of all things. Mike Haggar appears at the end of round 2 and crashes the party; Sodom then runs away in fear as Haggar chases him.
• Flanderization: Sodom's misguided fascination with Japanese culture in Final Fight became more of an obsession in the Alpha series, to the point that the Japanese versions of the games has all of his dialogue in broken Japanese.
• Gratuitous Japanese: Being an American samurai, he gets his Japanese pronunciations completely wrong, which is done on purpose, as Sodom is the equivalent of a guy who just really, really likes Kurosawa or anime, and took a class or two before bailing out.
  • The character on his shirt is a mangled rendering of the kanji that means "death".
  • Most of his victory quotes are written as phonetic English renderings of Japanese, with the quote below being a classic example.
    DIE JOB DEATH CAR! (Daijoubu desu ka?, meaning “are you ok?”)
  • His victory quote, "Isa jinjouni shogi! Ok?", is a Shout-Out to Samurai Shodown's battle start announcement... Said at the end of the match.
  • In his ending in Alpha, he decides to rebuild Mad Gear under a different name... which is just the kana equivalent to Mad Gear written in kanji. The others promptly call him out on it.
  • As of 6 he apparently owns a very Japanese-themed clothing store called "KISS ACHE AWAY", a mangled pronunciation of kisekae, the Japanese word for "dress-up".
• Hidden in Plain Sight: In the World Tour Mode of 6, the player can find his giant truck within Metro City, while Sodom himself is seemingly nowhere to be seen. Asking certain people around the area however slowly leads the player to discover that the apparel shop owner, Gomorrah, is actually a fully-reformed Sodom who had given up his life of crime in the Mad Gear gang and turned his love of Japanese aesthetics into a clothing line.
• Katanas Are Just Better: In Final Fight and his X-ISM mode in Alpha 3 he wields a pair of katanas.
• Leitmotif:
  • His Alpha/Alpha 2 theme is a combination of the BGMs from both the Warehouse and Metro City Subway Areas, with a hint of the iconic Peter Gunn theme thrown in.
  • His boss theme from Final Fight is referenced in his X-Ism theme from Alpha 3.
• McNinja: He tries to be a McSamurai. Whether he means to be a ninja or is actually trying to look like a football samurai is unknown, but whatever it is, he's doing a terrible job at it.
• Molotov Truck: In his Alpha 3 ending, he sacrifices himself to stop Bison once and for all. By driving his decorated truck into the Psycho Drive in a kamikaze attack, no less.
• Musical Theme Naming: Named after the metal band.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: He was undefeated in the underground wrestling circuit, but when it comes to his fellow world warriors, he just can't seem to win a fight.
• Out of Focus: He’s only ever appeared in the Alpha series, and is the only character from the mainline Alpha games to have never made the transition to either the IV or V series.
• Put on a Bus: If Poison's opening in USFIV is anything to go by, by the time IV takes place, Sodom has gone off to open up a Yakitori (Japanese fried chicken) restaurant.
• Worthy Opponent: Despite his enmity towards Guy for besting him back during the time of Final Fight, he still holds the Bushin ninja in high regard as a fighter.

Dan

Master of Saikyo-Style

^{Street Fighter Alpha} 

Saikyo-style! Burn it into your memory!

Origin: Hong Kong

Fighting style: Saikyo "Ultimate Style"
Appears in: SFA, SFIV, SFV (DLC)

Voiced by: ^note Osamu Hosoi (Street Fighter Alpha series, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom vs. SNK, Capcom vs. SNK 2, SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix), Kazuyuki Ishikawa (Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation; Japanese), Toshiyuki Kusuda (Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter X Tekken, Street Fighter V; Japnese), Ted Sroka (Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter X Tekken, Street Fighter V; English)

The original Joke Character, Dan is a parody of Art of Fighting protagonists Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia. Essentially Robert (long brown hair tied with a ponytail, with a forelock added for flavor) wearing a Palette Swap of Ryo's outfit (a pink karate gi with a black t-shirt underneath). Dan's father was an unknown martial artist named Go Hibiki who challenged Sagat to a match. Go managed to deprive Sagat of his right eye, but Sagat killed him in a fit of Unstoppable Rage. Motivated to avenge his father's death, Dan trained under Gouken (Ryu and Ken's mutual master) for a while, but was expelled from his dojo before completing his training when Gouken realized that Dan was motivated by his hatred for Sagat, which would make him susceptible to the dreaded Satsui no Hado. Returning to Hong Kong, he decided to train himself and develop his own fighting style. After hearing that Sagat was defeated by a "strange Asian man" (Ryu), Dan traveled to Thailand and challenged Sagat to a duel. After defeating Sagat (who supposedly threw the match on purpose out of pity for Dan), Dan decided to promote his fighting style under the name of Saikyo-ryu (the "Strongest style"), befriending Blanka and taking Sakura as his self-appointed student. In IV he enters the tournament hoping to promote his dojo.

Returns to the series for the final DLC season, Season V, in V.

Dan at a glimpse truly lives up to his joke status, having attacks with absolutely pathetic range and form. His take on the classic Shotoclone kit shows the style at its most unrefined: a tiny and sputtering fireball, a not-at-all invincible uppercut, and a very stubby placeholder for a Hurricane Kick. As you dig into his tools, however, he reveals a deceptively complex fighter underneath, boasting above average damage on many attacks and the ability to overwhelm opponents with goofy but misleading mix-ups. Best exemplifying this Joke Character approach are his weaponized taunts which all can duck under high attacks and have hitboxes to punish aggressive foes. Dan's return in V grants him the ability to string his taunts together with his specials, allowing him to quickly build meter and his V-Gauge. The one big caveat, though, is that he also builds his opponent's V-Gauge, meaning that by being his usual buffoon of a self, he's giving the opponent the tools needed to win.

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• Achievements in Ignorance: When he is fighting against Oni in IV and wins...he doesn't even realize he won.
  Aaaahh! Goodbye cruel world! Wait a sec... You mean I won?!?
• Adaptational Badass: In a Brazilian Street Fighter comic series, Dan sets out to avenge his father's death by Sagat's hands. However, this Dan is a completely serious fighter (plus Badass Biker and Warrior Poet), without a single shred of Joke Character, able to take out a small platoon of Shadaloo guards before facing Sagat. Of note, said comic came out around the time Street Fighter Alpha 2 was released, and there was little (if any) information on Dan's status as a Joke Character. Oh, and his gi there is white instead of pink.
• Art Evolution: Dan's animations in V are designed to further emphasize his lack of proper martial arts form, with him struggling to catch his weight after basic attacks like his heavy normals and flailing everywhere while performing throws and specials.
• Ascended Extra: His first appearance, prior to Alpha, was in a single piece of artwork as a random jobber beaten up by Sagat and held by his head. Alpha homages this when you fight Sagat as Ryu in single-player mode.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: He looks exactly like Art of Fighting's Robert Garcia, but with a pink version of Ryo's uniform. His father, Go Hibiki, is pretty much just a rip-off of Mr. Karate.
• Anti-Mentor: Dan owns his own dojo to teach other people the Saikyo-ryu. However, his only students are Blanka and Sakura who don't appear to even take his training to heart.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: He would be a major case, and comes with all the associated bluster, but he's not the genuine article unless you're that good with him. He even created his own style — "Saikyo" ('The Greatest Style').
• Balance Buff: When Dan was introduced to IV in the console port, he was considered the second-worst character behind the 1.0 incarnation of Vega. While this is in line with him being a Joke Character, fans were less than amused at such a character taking a roster slot. Thanks to several buffs through the game's different iterations, however, he became a fine character to play.
• Beware the Silly Ones:
  • His gimmick in IV; his attacks are slow, stupid-looking, and none-too-accurate, but do way more damage than you'd expect from their appearance. The Gadoken, for example, a parody of Ryu and Ken's famous Hadoken that launches a tiny, short-ranged green fireball, does more damage than Sagat's Tiger Shot, one of the most dangerous projectile attacks in the game.
  • When Kage was revealed in V, people took note of his fighting style and realized that it was a fine-tuned, but an unmistakable version of Dan's. Given that Kage is the Enemy Without of Ryu, and a manifestation of the Satsui No Hadou itself, it's implied that Dan is far closer to understanding it than it seems, but just can't get a hold of it yet.
• Bicep-Polishing Gesture: Several of his victory animations have him flex his muscles.
• Blinded by Rage: According to Gouken, Dan's hatred and resentment of Sagat is the reason he is incapable of becoming a stronger fighter. It's stunting his training and preventing him from growing as a person. Notably, he should have gotten his closure when he "defeated" Sagat around the time of Alpha 3 (Sagat had thrown the fight when he had his Heel Realization by noticing how Dan's vengeful attitude was just like his own toward Ryu); whether Dan has ever figured out the truth or not is debatable.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: If you complete one of his ultra combos in IV, he'll give you a thumbs-up and a Twinkle Smile.
• But Not Too Foreign: He was born and raised in Hong Kong, but his heritage is Japanese.
• Butt-Monkey: The most prominent one in the series. Dan has only one canonical victory against an opponent, Sagat, and it was all a total fluke on his part. And all of his attempts to promote his dojo fail on account of some blunder on his part, like in IV where he forgot to advertise the dojo's address.
• Cast from Hit Points: In several of the Marvel-themed Capcom vs. games, if Dan connects with his ultimate hyper combo, the Otoko Michi, the move deals his oppoenent the most damage of all moves in the game, but also deals severe damage to Dan himself, leaving him with only a Last Chance Hit Point.
• Character Catchphrase:
  OYAJI!!!
  Fatherrrrr!^note English translation of the above, as per SFIV
  "YAAHOOOOOOO!"
• Charged Attack: In V, Gadoken can be charged to deal more damage and provide more safety on use.
• The Chew Toy: He constantly gets mocked, treated like trash and generally dismissed throughout the series.
• Close-Range Combatant: By virtue of his awful fireball and short ranged normals, Dan is designed to play around up close. It's actually quite rewarding due to his ease of comboing and mixing up, as well as his deceptively high damage on hit.
• Continuity Nod: In the official storyline, Gouken (Ryu and Ken's mentor) kicked Dan out of the dojo because Dan wouldn't give up his desire for revenge. Which would imply that Gouken was trying to prevent him from succumbing to the Satsui No Hadou.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: While he's meant to be a joke, it's only really in the context of his fellow World Warriors. Not only does he take on an entire gang by himself in an official comic, but he's surprisingly knowledgeable of martial arts for someone with such an ironically-named style, and a comic showed he's able to use the Raging Demon.
• Denser and Wackier:
  • While he's always been a silly character, Dan's transition to IV dramatically emphasizes the silliness through his animations and attacks, making him seem more of a literal parody of a martial artist than being an average one.
  • Inverted in V. Although Dan is still goofy, his animations as a whole have dramatically cut back on the silliness and mostly relegated them to his V-Skill taunts; he now fights and moves in a way that is believably indicative of an above-average martial artist.
• Determinator: If there's at least one positive trait about Dan, it's that he never gives up. No matter how many times he gets beaten down, he'll always get back up to try again. In Sakura Ganbaru he takes a direct hit from one of Ken's Shoryukens that knocks him into a car and he still manages to get back to challenge Ken again despite being injured, something that impresses Ken.
• Developer's Foresight: As his taunts are so integrated into Saikyo Style that he has a Legendary Taunt as a super, and his V Skill involves taunts, naturally, people would want to teabag^* The act of spamming a crouch, to taunt the opponent with him. Do so with him in V, and he does a secret taunt where he does a set of squats.
• Difficult, but Awesome: His V Skills. On one hand, his V Skill can easily leave him open, and give his opponents meter, along with all the other quirks that make him a Joke Character. On the other, his V Skill allows him to dance around his opponent easily, can help him rake up massive combos, and has the inherent hilarity of weaponizing a taunt. On top of all that, his frame data is actually decent, to the point where players found he has an Infinite Combo shortly after he released.
• Dumbass Has a Point: He will actually comment to E. Honda about how he's unintentionally undermining his whole argument, as no traditionalist would consider what he does "sumo wrestling", so it totally fails to promote sumo as a legitimate fighting style in its own right.
• Easter Egg:
  • In V, if the opponent decides to let Dan fully play out his Legendary Taunt Critical Art, Dan will take quadruple damage during the last bits of the sequence; a single Critical Art from anyone in the cast will instantly K.O. him.
  • If the player controlling Dan repeatedly presses down to enact the troll practice of "teabagging", Dan will segue into a hidden taunt where he does squats and mocks his opponent.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Up till Udon's Legends series, Go Hibiki's death was more or less Played for Laughs. Then the whole, brutal scenario is shown in full.
• Fighting Clown: Dan upgrades from a Joke Character for his appearance in V. He's just as goofy as ever, but he does have tools that make him a viable pick such as his impressive ability to string hits.
• Flanderization: Compared to the games, where he gradually becomes more powerful and competent, the UDON comics make him a downright incompetent fighter, unable to even score a single hit.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: His moveset starting out as an inferior copy of Ryu and Ken's and then attaining unique techniques that change from game to game is reminiscent of how Dan is constantly (and clumsily) trying to improve the Saikyo Style with new attacks that take his fancy. In turn, this also provides an in-universe explanation as to why his martial art skills are so unrefined, clumsy, and lacking in combo compatibility.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Numerous win quotes and skits across the series will have characters ridicule how Dan gets winded after barely a few hits or moments of action, but Dan always possesses above-average health in-gameplay.
• Giant Novelty Check: When he beats Seth in SSFIV, he immediately demands for one as a reward.
  That's it! I won! Where's my prize money?! Does it come in a giant check?!
• Goofy Suit: Dan's Story costume in V is a wearable version of his Saikyo-Boy doll, Dan's attempt to copy the Blanka-Chan doll's success. It is essentially Dan dressed up as a bad drawing of his own head.
• The Greatest Style: Played for Laughs by Dan, who created his own martial art called as "Saikyo Style"^note Saikyo means The Stronger One in Japanese, which is all but powerful. The Saikyo Style is noted to be an "unprofessional" combination of Ansatsuken techniques he learned from Gouken and Muay Thai moves he got from copying Sagat. He also adds his own taunts and any other random moves that catch his eye. As a result (and in keeping with its creator), Saikyo is a mishmash of random techniques that don't really have any overall theme or consistency.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Despite years of intense training (those muscles didn't develop themselves!), he pales massively in comparison to the rest of the cast, who underwent similarly intense training themselves yet came out powerful than he could ever hope to be. Even teenage girls chock full of talent like Sakura have no problem beating him. Gouken points out that Dan's unresolved anger and desire for revenge even after defeating Sagat are hampering his ability to grow as a fighter. Dan constantly trains, but he lacks the spiritual growth that fighters like Ryu emphasize.
• Head Swap: Of Ryu/Ken, but with an added undershirt as well. From IV onward he's built with his own unique model and animations.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Ever since Blanka saved his butt, they've been best bros ever since. In fact, as a term of endearment, he's the only one aside from Sakura and Blanka's mom that calls Blanka by his real name, Jimmy.
• Hidden Depths: Before his animations were made Denser and Wackier in V, his animations in IV are nearly identical to Kage's, Ryu's Superpowered Evil Side who's willing to give in to the Assassination part of the Assassination Fist for more power. In short, he studied Ansatsuken well enough for it to be accurate to the manifestation of the inner darkness of an actual black belt in Ansatsuken using it at its most lethal.
• Home Stage: He has his Dojo in V as a stage.
• Hot-Blooded: Incredibly enthusiastic about his martial arts, even though he's the anthropomorphic embodiment of punching above your weight class.
• Hot Blooded Sideburns: He has sideburns, which is one thing that sets him apart from Robert Garcia, and he's very enthusiastic and passionate about fighting. Unfortunately, his tendency to punch above his weight often leaves him black and blue by the end of it.
• Hunk: His overall physical appearance in SFV: Champion Edition. Compared to IV, where his features are more cartoonish and he appears to be balding, SFV: Champion Edition makes him far more handsome, to the point where he looks like an Asian version of Robert Garcia.
• Hurricane Kick: The Dankuukyaku, which is the most unique of Dan's special moves from the other Shotoclones. The light version is a knee strike rather than a spinning kick, but every version of the move has a different number of hits from one to three, culminating in a full rotation of his body as he attacks.
• I Owe You My Life: It's how he and Blanka became friends. The latter saved his life in a Noodle Incident, and they've been buds ever since.
• I Shall Taunt You: Notably, he's the only character in Alpha to be able to taunt infinitely, and he's the only character with two rolling taunts, an aerial taunt (although Dhalsim does gain one of his own eventually), and a crouching taunt. He also has two supers revolving around posing: the first is a long series of taunts while the second turns every single action of his into a taunt.
• Incompletely Trained: No matter what he calls it, Dan's fighting style is proof of his limited understanding of Ansatsuken techniques. This is justified as he tried learning Ansatsuken from Gouken, but Gouken realized he only wanted to use the art to avenge his father's death, so Gouken rejected him as a student and sent him away.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Despite his arrogance, and his initial thirst for vengeance, he's the only user of anything Ansatsuken-related aside from Gouken without a hint of evil inside him. He still once used the Raging Demon, but him tripping while doing so might've been influenced by a lack of darkness, making it rather weak.
• Informed Flaw: The Gadoken is supposed to feel like a slap. It might have a comically pitiful range, but if it connects, its damage is usually above that of the Hadouken itself.
• Insistent Terminology: Sakura always calls him Hibiki-san, which makes him feel old (he's apparently a few years older than Ryu and Ken); he always exasperatedly tell her to call him "sensei" instead. Yeah... not gonna happen.
• Iron Butt Monkey: For some reason, despite being easy to defeat, it’s incredibly hard to put him down for good. Best demonstrated when Ryu and Ken beat him down together and he gets up not too long after.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's cocky and arrogant, obnoxiously thinks he's better than people who have dedicated their lives to developing stronger techniques, but fights to honor his father's memory and genuinely cares about his True Companions, Sakura and Blanka.
• Joke Character: The Trope Codifier and most famous. He was created to be a wry jibe at SNK's Art of Fighting games, whose protagonists borrowed heavily from the Street Fighter games. Dan, in turn, can be summed up as Robert Garcia's head on Ryo Sakazaki's body (albeit with a pink gi instead of an orange one) and his attacks are almost completely ineffective (much like when a player tries to use special moves in AOF with a depleted Spirit Gauge). This status would largely persist until IV and its updates, in which Dan becomes a freaking beast.
  • SNK would later make fun of him (and themselves) in SVC Chaos, namely by making Dan parody even more of Ryo's moves and a Running Gag of nearly everyone—including Dan himself—mistaking him for Robert, along with ascending him to the mid-boss range..
  • Even Demitri of Darkstalkers hates Dan and wouldn't even take a sip of blood from him. "Only the beautiful and strong can serve me. You fail on both counts!"
  • The Chairperson from Rival Schools apparently took weekend classes in Dan's martial art, Saikyo. And it shows. Unless she's your assistant instead of your main fighter, that is.
  • Dan has the most useless drop pattern of the entire Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo cast: His pattern is all red. Bear in mind that clearing a gem also clears all adjacent gems of the same color, and all gems of the same color adjacent to those, and so on... Basically, the instant Dan's counter gems hit zero, a single red crash gem can completely counter every attack Dan has sent since the last such counterattack. However, he does have the special attribute of sending 150% as many counter gems. Used well, you can bring a quick end to your opponent; used poorly, and you set yourself up for massive damage.
  • In Super Gem Fighter (AKA Pocket Fighter), Dan can only make red gems pop out of his opponent when he connects, meaning the only thing he's capable of maxing out on its own is the Gadoken. If you want to power up the Koryuken or the Dankukyaku, you have to either hit the treasure chest that appears at the start of a match or use the gems the opponent is hitting out of you.
  • Dan makes an appearance as a Spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the joke continues; he's got the worst power out of any Primary Spirit, to the point that not even equipping good Support Spirits can balance him out with the next-worst Spirits, and you start the fight with 30% damage and no trade-off benefit.^note The effect itself is Not Completely Useless, as Lucario benefits from damage, and the Mega Lucario Spirit has the exact same effect and number of Support Spirit slots as Dan... but seven times the power level. Pretty much the only reason anyone has to use him is the fact that starting up the game gives you a random Spirit; Supports can't be equipped on their own, and you don't get a Primary in Adventure Mode until your second fight, so if Dan was your random, having an awful Primary is technically superior to having no Spirits at all.
• "Just Frame" Bonus: In IV Omega Edition, he has a move called "Funjinken" that parodies the Electric Wind God Fist down to its ludicrously precise execution requirements. The mechanic was carried over to Street Fighter V, where Dan has the option to pull off a more powerful Gadouken or Koryuken with precise timing while his second V-Trigger is active.
• Kamehame Hadoken: A pitifully weak varient called the "Gadoken". It's smaller, does less damage, and travels a fraction of the distance a regular Hadoken does. That said, it still has its uses as an anti-zoning tool. V also buffed it significantly by allowing Dan to charge it for more damage, range, and frame advantage. "Haoh Gadoken" plays the trope straighter, being an actually powerful attack, but one that exhausts Dan whenever he uses it.
• Karmic Jackpot: Invoked in IV. For saving his life in a past Noodle Incident, Dan returns the favor by helping Blanka's mother locate him. Cue Blanka and his mother having a joyful reunion.
• Ki Manipulation: His Gadoken displays Dan's very miniscule grasp of controlling his own ki. The times where he can do real damage with it tend to overwhelm him, such as being blasted back by his Haoh Gadoken or achieving the Raging Demon for mere seconds.
• Lag Cancel: His V-Skills are taunts that act as this, one cancels out of Specials, the other cancels out of Normals. As one can guess, they can be used to extend combos, and, at least for the former, reset the Neutral.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: He's got the chin and the attitude, but not the competence to back it up.
• Last Chance Hit Point: In several of the Marvel-themed Capcom vs. games, if Dan connects with his ultimate hyper combo, the Otoko Michi, that move deals the most damage of all moves in the game to Dan's opponent, but also deals severe damage to Dan himself, leaving him with only 1 Hit Point.
• Lethal Joke Character:
  • Debuting in Alpha as a parody of Street Fighter copycats and "Shotoclones" in general, Dan is pathetic on paper. He relies on cheap shots to win, but is known for being very tricky in the right hands. His normals are some of the hardest-hitting in the game, and his pathetic Shoryuken (the Koryuken) becomes invincible after a certain amount of attacks or taunts. This is why Dan has more taunt inputs than any other character in the Alpha trilogy. If you're good at keeping count, this can lead to a humiliating defeat for your opponent when you cancel their Super!
  • Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 change his useless Otoko Michi from an amusing way to kill yourself into the most damaging move in the game. It still reduces Dan to his last hit point when it hits, but losing Dan to take out one member of the opposing team is a net gain. More hilariously, it has priority over the Dangerous Forbidden Technique, Shun Goku Satsu, which Otoko Michi is a parody of: if Akuma (the strongest Shoto character ever) and Dan both use their respective supers on each other, Dan will emerge triumphant! His Punch and Launch throw is especially nasty, leading to some loops and mind games when used well. He had good pokes, and with the right partners, he could actually be very effective.
  • In SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos. Gadoshokoken piffles out after a few feet but covers the same area as a Haohshokoken, which means that it'll catch you in a jump every time. Stupid, showy power punch (mimicking Ryo's super move which dizzies enemies if it connects) has a hideous recovery time, but does a lot of damage and sends his opponent flying across the screen, so it can't be punished unless they land directly in a corner. The long windup functions as an auto guard which can block anything, even normally unblockable moves. Same ol' dumb Dankukyaku which is faster than before and can easily punish fireballs. And of course, the Otoko Michi, his Desperation Attack, takes off half your life and causes him no damage.
  • Dan is effective in Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium, albeit due to a bug. If you pick A-groove and activate it, you can infinitely chain his Dankukyaku and juggle his opponent.
  • Dan's iteration in IV has seen him evolve into one. His Shisso Buraiken Ultra Combo has priority over Akuma's Shin Shun Goku Satsu Ultra. This is hilarious to see in action: if Akuma's move activates, he cannot escape. Dan's Super is a stupidly-long combo that is easily punishable if you miss but surpasses his Super if it lands. His Koryuken and Gadouken now deal more damage than their counterparts, all variations of his Dankuukyaku are safe on block (i.e they can't be punished), and his taunts stop oncoming attacks, and his Ultra Combo isn't nerfed like everyone else's. In Ultra Street Fighter IV, performing a ducking or jumping taunt fills his Super Meter, which is crucial for a character with some of the funniest taunts. And to top it off, Shisso Buraiken has armor-breaker properties, making it a serious threat to defensive fighters like Gouken.
  • His iteration in V evolves what he's known for as an actual part of his game plan. His rolling taunts are now V-Skills that can let him Lag Cancel out of a surprisingly high number of moves (including special moves), giving him lots of combo potential. His Gadoken can also now be charged, and he has surprisingly well-rounded tools that allow him to be played in a variety of ways. He even had an infinite combo on launch which got nerfed later but was replaced by a buff to his Gadoken that randomly grants a knock-up on hit. The official Street Fighter YouTube channel sums up his playstyle the best:
    Narrator: His goofy nature and bloated ego have earned Dan the reputation of being a Joke Character. But, with an evolved playstyle that makes his mockery more meaningful, he's now more than capable of having the last laugh.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: His dad's the reason Sagat only has one eye, whereas Dan is an utter joke.
• Made of Iron: For all of the Butt-Monkey hijinks he goes through, nothing ever permanently injures him or even seems to keep him down for long. At one point in Sakura Ganbaru!, Ken lands a Shoryuken on him that was so devastating, Dan's defeated body caves in the ceiling of a nearby car; a short period of time later, he's bloodied and bruised, but up on his feet and following Ken from the nearby rooftops, which actually impresses the latter, if not disturbs him a little.
• Meaningful Name: His full name, when read with the surname first ("Hibiki Dan" or 火引 弾), literally means a "dud bullet", a reference to his short-range projectiles. Hibiki also translates to "echo". Dan is about as loud (and obnoxiously funny) as they get.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Dan's V-System in V is quirky in a couple of ways.
  • For one thing, Dan's V-Trigger I is the only V-Gauge that has only one bar. While on paper this sounds positive (he requires the least amount of health sacrificed to execute a V-Trigger), any V-System use (besides the V-Skill) will deplete his entire stock. So using a defensive V-System option (V-Reversal or Season V's new V-Shift mechanic) will deprive him of all V-Gauge techniques, not just the V-Trigger, forcing him into a unique fork the other characters aren't faced with. That said, a well-fished Crush Counter and a few taunts from his V-Skills will fill it right back up.
  • For both of his V-Skills, whenever he uses one both he and his opponent gain V-Gauge. So matches with Dan will mean an abundance of V-System in play.
• Missed the Call:
  • Literally. In his opening cutscene for IV, Dan believes that he wasn't invited to the original tournament (II). Blanka remarks that he had tried to call him several times to inform him of the tournament, but the phone was disconnected because Dan hadn't paid his phone bill.
  • In the UDON comics, Dan steals Guy's invitation to the Japan qualifier for the World Warrior Tournament, though in this case Guy actually knew and let him because he didn't feel up to it.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: In what was most certainly a visual parody of Sagat's Critical Art, Dan inflicts a highly effective and practical version for his own Critical Art in V: Champion Edition.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: S.I.N. recognizes that Dan has just as much potential to utilize the Satsui No Hadou as Akuma and Ryu. His fighting style in V looks similar to Kage's, supporting this.
• Obvious Rule Patch: It was shortly discovered after Dan's release in V that he had an infinite combo consisting of looping his crouching Heavy Punch into Gadoken on a standing opponent. When this combo happened in an actual tournament match at the Capcom Pro Tour, the day after they patched it out in probably the most appropriate way for Dan: giving his Gadoken a random chance to become a red fireball that juggles the opponent.
• Odd Friendship: Dan considers Sakura and Blanka to be his students. They'd dispute this, but they hang out with him anyway. Dan and Sakura are two of the only people, aside from Blanka's mother, to call Blanka by his real name, Jimmy.
• One-Man Army: Surprisingly, he managed to dish a Curb-Stomp Battle a group of thugs. While he's grossly outclassed by every other playable character, he's actually pretty competent against normal people.
• Optional Boss: Dan challenges every player character if the player fought extremely well, adding one more character that must be defeated before the player can win the game.
• Overshadowed by Awesome:
  • Dan actually has some decent abilities. It's just that in the Street Fighter universe, lots of people can shoot fire out of their hands and do it far better than him, and even the Badass Normals of the series overshadow him in terms of raw power or technique.
  • In Sakura Ganbaru, he's actually a perfectly competent fighter and observant to boot. He just happens to be overshadowed by the awesome, more well known fighters, as well as Sakura's ridiculous potential. To wit, he's perfectly capable of seeing through Ken's injuries (after Ken barely defeats Sakura), despite no one else taking note of his wrecked ribs. And his lecture on how ki works proves that he has done his homework. He's not bad, and he's even pretty good in the local circuits.
  • In the Udon comics he easily defeats some Mooks, but still comes up short against all the named characters.
• Paper Master: One of his attacks exclusive to his appearance in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (and in turn, Marvel vs. Capcom 2) is the Premium Sign, where he takes out an autograph, signs it, shows it off to his opponent, and tosses it forward as a projectile. Since this is Dan we're talking about, it's not a very effective attack, though beating an opponent with the Premium Sign is treated the same as beating them with a hyper combo by the announcer.
• Perpetual Poverty: His storyline in IV has him trying to make money by training students in his style of fighting. Hilarity Ensues.
• Plucky Comic Relief: From his constant boasting to his effeminate movements to the way he's thrown around like a ragdoll by his own attacks, everything the guy does is utterly hilarious.
• Practical Taunt:
  • Prior to IV, one of his taunts has him pull out a photo of himself, autograph it, then throw it as a makeshift projectile.
  • In most of his appearances, the Legendary Taunt super is cancelable at any point of its animation, giving Dan the ability to bait his opponent. In V, the Legendary Taunt gives both players a full super meter if Dan is allowed to do the whole thing.
  • Taunting in V becomes a part of Dan's gameplay identity through the V-Skill system, allowing him to cancel out of other animations into them to put himself at better frame advantages, as filler for juggle combos, or simply to throw off his opponent. However, doing any of Dan's V-Skills will add power to both characters' V-Gauges.
• Random Effect Spell: In V, he used to have an infinite combo that involved extensive use of his Gadouken fireball special move. The infinite was later Nerfed by "buffing" Gadouken with a small random chance to fire a "Red Gadouken", which deals slightly more damage and, more importantly, knocks down the opponent, forcing the Dan player to react appropriately. Humorously, Dan lets out a Big "WHAT?!" when this occurs, implying that every Red Gadouken he fires is just sheer dumb luck on Dan's part.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: He gains a move in IV's Omega Mode called "Danretsuken", where Dan strikes his opponent before transitioning into a series of rapid punches. The move returns as part of his official moveset in V.
• Red Sock Ruins the Laundry: How Dan's gi ended up pink.
• Revenge: His relationship with Sagat, concerning his father's death at Sagat's hand. It is because of this that Sagat realizes that his own war of vengeance with Ryu had him walking down a bad path and lets Dan defeat him so that he may satisfy his revenge and find a new purpose to live.
• Secret Character: His first appearance in a Street Fighter game was as one of three hidden characters in the first Alpha, selectable either through a cheat or by selecting the random option with the right timing. He's also a hidden character in both Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and Pocket Fighter.
• Shadow Archetype: To Sagat, of all people. Much like Sagat being beaten and scarred by Ryu, Dan experienced a horrific event in the form of his father's death that gave him a thirst for revenge. The difference is, Sagat realized that vengeance was destroying him and made him weak, whilst Dan was too late to find out and became irreversibly weak in comparison.
• Shirtless Scene: He has a shirtless alternate outfit in IV.
• Shotoclone: Naturally differentiates himself through his sheer ineptitude as a fighter. His specials fit the basic mold of other shotos, but are held back by individual weaknesses that limit their versatility (his fireball has poor range, his shoryuken lacks invincibility, etc.). What he does have though is a stronger ability to mix-up and chip away at his opponent, especially in newer titles with his various taunt abilities.
• Shoryuken: Interestingly, Dan's version has an one-in-eight chance of coming out in a "shiny" version which is completely invincible on the way up.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He thinks he's the main character of the series, but is leagues below every protagonist and mascot in terms of strength and technique..
• Start My Own: When Gouken denied him further training due to his motivation (revenge against Sagat), he split off and took what he learned to craft his own brand of fighting: "Saikyo-Ryu" ("The Strongest Style").
• Take That!: When several members of Capcom's development team jumped ship to SNK to help make Art of Fighting and other fighting games that would go head-to-head with Street Fighter, Capcom struck back by creating him:
  • He's basically Robert Garcia's head grafted onto Ryo Sakazaki's body with Yuri Sakazaki's mannerisms, to the point that Terry and Kasumi, among others, in SVC Chaos mistake him for Robert. Hilarity Ensues when Kasumi doesn't buy it:
    Kasumi Todoh: It's useless to feign innocence. Defend yourself!
    • To which he responds with this win quote:
    My name is Dan Hibiki! Dan Hibiki! Dan Hibiki! That's Dan Hibiki! Got it?
  • His father is based on Takuma Sakazaki as Mr. Karate.
  • In IV, one of his Idle Animations is the Haoh Sho Koh Ken, and he gains the Haoh Gadouken as his second Ultra in SSFIV, an attack so strong that the recoil sends him flying backwards^note Officially first appearing in an SNK crossover game, SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium
  • Saikyo-ryuu Karate is a knockoff of Kyokugen Karate, starting off by name (Saikyo^note which also doubles as a knock on KOF, as Saikyo is taken from series hero Kyo Kusanagi and his dad Saisyu = strongest; Kyokugen = extreme limit). The attacks are visually similar (Gadouken = Kou'ou Ken/Ryuugekiken, Dankuukyaku = Hien Shippuu Kyaku, Koryuken = Kohou/Ryuuga; Dan even throws his fireballs with one hand) but are ineffectual, as a nod to Art of Fighting, where specials would be useless if the player exhausted their spirit gauge, as well as the incessant taunting, because AOF had this as a method to make said gauge rise back.
  • The Hisshou Buraiken is the Ryuko Ranbu, only from a stationary position.
  • He sometimes screams "Saikyo-ryuu ougi!" instead of "Kyokugen-ryuu ougi!"
  • In the Alpha series, Dan was the only character able to taunt indefinitely, much like his source inspiration.
  • He even gains Ryo's "Ora ora!" taunt in IV.
  • Finally, his ending in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter is a parody of the ending to AOF, with Akuma taking the place of Mr. Karate.
  • One of his win quotes in Alpha 3:
  I hate the Art of Fighting, but I want to be The King of Fighters!
  • In several pictures (and even a game or two), his father's appearance mocks that of the masked Mr. Karate from Art of Fighting; where Mr. Karate wears a tengu mask with a red face and a long nose, Go Hibiki's face is actually red and that's his real nose.
  • Naturally, SNK retaliated by giving Yuri moves and intros that not only parodied Ryu, Ken, and Sakura, but Chun-Li, Makoto, and Felicia as well. Also, in The King of Fighters 2000, they gave Robert an alternate Striker who is another version of himself, decked in a white gi, whose only function is taunting the opponent before taking off. Both companies were willing to bury the hatchet and make fun of themselves in the SNK vs. Capcom series. Specifically, Dan received even more parody attacks. Of note is his Kyuukyoku Tenchi Gadou Zuki in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, a knock-off of Ryo's Tenchi Haoh Ken which, upon connection, will cause Dan's hand to strain! He'll take time to fix it while the opponent is flying, all the while assuring the player that there's nothing wrong.
  • Heck, SVC Chaos is dedicated to cementing his Joke Character status. Notable in which it was SNK Playmore that made the game, the very same company Dan was created to parody. Even the Gadoken is reduced to a puny ball of light, smaller than the usual chi blast.
  • In V, his Idle Animation ends with him striking Ryo's idle animation for several seconds. Most of his move set also ends with some variety of boisterous recovery animation, making him look more foolish than usual. Capcom also ported over his Zanretsuken parody from IV's Omega Mode, Danretsuken, just to cement the comparison further. His battle costume is basically Mr. Karate's Tengu mask.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Over the course of the series, Dan has not only gotten better as a playable character but seems to be gradually getting more respect from other people in-universe.
• Token Good Teammate: The only Ansatsuken practitioner besides Gouken without a drop of evil inside of him. Yes, even Sakura has a higher likelihood of giving in to dark forces than he does. His SFV character art even calls him "Hell's Angel" in reference to this.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Over the years, he has gone from Joke Character to Lethal Joke Character. Cue IV where he's actually a decent fighter. By the time of V, the joke aspects of Dan are largely in personality and he has evolved to become a completely practical character in line with everyone else. In Dan's SFV Character Story, he became globally famous after he had managed to win a championship tournament using his Saikyo-Style Martial Arts.
  • The Saikyo Style has gradually evolved over the various games from being a lesser version of Ansatsuken to having unique moves all its own. Perhaps best showcased in how his old grab involved grabbing an opponent before punching them while his latest one in SFV has him comically (but effectively) compromise their footing with a leg sweep before slamming them into the ground.
• Training Dummy: He fills this role in IV's trial mode.
• True Companions: He's good friends with Blanka and Sakura, both of whom stick by him even at his goofiest. He doesn't show this in a dignified way though, like during his rival battle with Sakura in IV where he starts bawling with emotion.
• Twinkle Smile: Pops one at the end of his Shisso Buraiken ultra in IV.
• Unnecessary Combat Roll: He's capable of curling into a ball and rolling forward or backward, an ability he usually only performs when taunting (though it's possible for one to utilize his "rolling taunts" to evade his opponent's attacks).
• Weak, but Skilled: While he's the Joke Character both in-universe and in-game, supplementary materials have shown he actually is quite knowledgeable about the Martial Arts. He upgrades to this gameplay-wise in IV, as he has a few tricks up his sleeve (like invincibility frames during his Shisso Buraiken Ultra) that make him decent rather than purely awful.
• You Killed My Father: Dan wants revenge against Sagat for beating his father, Go, to death after Go took Sagat's eye. However, it's deconstructed — according to Gouken, the only reason Dan isn't able to become stronger and grow into an extremely capable fighter is his latent desire for revenge (even after Sagat threw his battle with Dan) stunting his training and severely limiting his potential. This is proven post-Alpha where Dan is actually able to improvements to his style now that he's no longer obsessing over Sagat.