Agree, i also prefer Viper as the only/one of the very few char to NOT have “special” ki
I like to think at her as not special as fighter, like she’s highly trained but definitely not part of that 0,01% born to be SF level
Her whole concept is built on have to use gadgets to compensate that gap
For how i see it, she’s another Rolento under that point of view
I agree with this statement a lot. A big problem with that, however, is that in the world where the technology to create beings like Seth, Necro, Twelve and all the Bison minions… not to mention stuff like the Feng Shui Engine, BLECE etc her arsenal of gadgets seems pretty outdated. Sure, Rolento uses grenades, much more outdated than her arsenal, but at least he feels like a character in a Martial Arts fantasy story, unlike her. He fits the universe much better.
However, this is more a problem with her concept as a whole, rather than your line of thinking.
For what it’s worth, should Rolento lose his trusty metal baton, he could still come out on top purely thanks to the tricks up his sleeve, like the iron rope he uses to hang people in his Ultra combos or strategically placing his grenades. Like how he drops one on the floor while rolling away. If all else fails he’ll somehow set up a trap with his goons lol
I think the difference there is that these technologies you listed usually modify directly the host, while she got more actual James Bond-like removable gadgets, something that’s more in line with the “equipment” type of tech, rather than actual “power-up” of the individual
Wich i’m ok with, is pretty fitting the concept that she’s NOT on a martial artist trip tobecomethemostpowerfulbeingevah, but an agent who consider fights as part of her job and her tech as simple agent equipment (like a gun)
She can remove these in a sec and be ready to go take daughter at school
I’m also ok with the kind of tacky shit she use, seem made for emulate SFers ki abilities (electropunches, flamingkicks etc)
Where it REALLY fail imho is that while the equipment explain how she fill the offense gap, it doesn’t justify her defense, being able to take attacks from SF fighters without get quickly destroyed
Will have made sense have this as her canon look
But whatever, personally i don’t like Viper on general, but that’s my thought on the concept
My vision on Rolento
He’s a survivalist, so i like to think he prepared himself to a situation where he lose everything (baton, bombs, knives, rope), at least to the point of fight his way into escape.
He’s probably the kind of guy that will throw ground dust in enemy eyes, then pick a rock/bottle/branch/whatever to cause his enemy maximum damage in fastest/easier way possible
If forced to hand-to-hand only thing we seen are his kicks, but he’s still a very agile, fast and strong (got a throw where he lift/launch opponent) man, with great accuracy, timing and reflexes. And last but not last he’s smart as fuck and does’nt shy from play dirty, so i guess weaponless survival mode Rolento will be all eye pokes, throat strikes and kicks in the balls
To give him a level in that scenario, even Dan or Sean should fuck up weaponless Rolento/Poison/C.Viper… unless they(Dan/Sean) get outsmarted and defeated for “comical” effect (most likely scenario lol)
By the way Poison while weaponless defeated easily 2 Alex-size guys
I think in anime SF universe the fact itself they’re “important” characters make that even weaponless Rolento/Poison/C.Viper can fuck up a decent number (5? 10+?) of opponents like these before be defeated
I know some may point Poison seem to have a bit more bare-hands training due wrestling (in SF4), but i think it’s fair consider Rolento/Poison/C.Viper mostly equal.
Rolento likely got lot of militar combat experience (and was a FF boss), while C.Viper got probably the most technical training of the three, while being the physically weakest
I see Rolento as the cheater. Considering his insane agillity, which isn’t due to any equipment, it’s clear he has very advanced training. He’s just not a Martial Artist in the full sense of the word, so he doesn’t care about a fair fight. You mess with him, you’re getting “grenaded”, hanged and burned. Hell, in the Street Fighter universe that’s nothing his opponents can’t take anyway. He is a good character and all his non-martial arts qualities are well justified.
C.I.A. agents go through extensive hand-to-hand combat training, they learn krav maga, jiu jitsu, weapon use. I am sure Viper is not defenseless if she loses her gadgets.
As mentioned in her win quotes, her current personality is a far cry from her younger years. It is implied that she was something of a wildcat and a thrill seeking delinquent as a teenager, before the events that got her to be a responsible and focused adult.
Maybe she was like a Cody until she got pregnant.
C.Viper was the best candidate used by S.I.N. to test the battle suit. Take that how you will.
For me like I mentioned a lot times and even did a compilation of this. the only the whole thing I believe that breaks the whole theme of street fighter are those that use household stuff like yoyo, dustpan, megaphones, keyboards, Violin and other stuff many of those from RS used. Trends may come and go but dangerous and lethal weapons are always welcome for me in SF.
Why? The likes of bombs are popular motif since from both SF from original creators of SF1 and those that popularized the title in SF2, has a lot of bombs in their 90s works from numerous beat em ups and gameover screens.
Mars was a major let down in storymode. Seeing a fighter for street fighter using psycho or snh powered enchanced dustpan. Or someone that mastered a martial art about megaphone, It’s like a mockery and a sarcasm or a joke character in a different layer.
I randomly decided to start posting a few of my fav Bison quotes since it’s Tuesday. Gonna call this “It is Tuesday”.
Say what you will about the USA show, but the “I killed my father too” line in the final episode was GOLDEN.
Savage.
What’s cool about it is that I would like to think that it is canon that he killed his father. It would really help 1-up his villainous peers just incase there was ever any doubt.
Gill: “I killed my predecessor.”
Akuma: “I killed my teacher”
Bison: “Hold my drink.”
Necalli: “
”
Absolutely not.
Necalli would say “I devoured an ancient warrior no one ever cared about even hundreds of years ago!”, fully believing that it would amaze the other three.
Basically, Necalli is evil Dan.
Did’nt said she’s defenseless, i said as fighter she’s very likely not SF level (becoming “SF level” with the addition of gadgets)
Rolento, Poison, maybe very early Sean (when he get beat up at random tournament)
That level
Tbh hand-to-hand ability of CIA agents, agents in general and even actual soldiers tend to be overrated… even russian spetnaz, probably by far the most trained ones at fighting don’t have the good training of an actual pro-fighter that focus entirely on improve fighting skills
Nash was america’s martial arts Champion (twice) i’m ok him being that good
Plus was a fighting genius who created his own style, he was easily one of the best of the 'young" generation
Guile was an huge guy with some training in multiple martial arts (in the army?) but he became truly SF level thanks to Nash who teched him his style, ki attacks and trained with him
C.Viper is a secret agent first, hand-to-hand is a skill of her profession, like infiltration, espionage, hacking a pc, shoot with guns/rifles etc… I’m ok with her being a “normal” competent fighter and not a SF level one… wich is the point of her having gadgets
I take It as other candidates were worse, as none of them was SF level
Illuminati selection probably got some potential SFers… Trained and experimented on since childhood,lot of them maybe have ki attacks too. Them being not good as Gill/Urien left them still lot of room to be SFers
But that SIN selection may not mean much… Take 99 Beagle dogs
The strongest of them is still far from bring a wolf, even if he won the contest 
It’s kinda crazy because when you think about it - Guile has been using the Sonic Booms for much longer than Nash did, yet still to this day Guile can only throw them with both hands (well, not counting the V-Trigger) while Nash throws them with one
Just started watching Street Fighter Victory with my buddy Sam (a massive Street Fighter fan and 2nd biggest Bison fan on the planet) who has never seen it before.
One disc in and he’s already agreed that it’s just about some of the best SF media ever. Much better story than anything in any game outside Alpha. Ken and Ryu are likeable, Chun Li is adorable, Dorai is a bad ass, Fei Long has the best costume EVER and Guile was goddamn amazing like he should be.
Can we talk about how fucking cool SF II V Cammy is?
How is it that there’s still no costume set in SFV dedicated exclusively to the series is beyond me
It has like the BEST Bison cape styling ever!
@Chun-Li_Forever Not sure if it’ll post correctly here, but a bud of mine just informed me of Cheng Lu, the “King Kong Barbie” body builder and she did a simple Chun Li cosplay, might be to your liking!
https://live.kuaishou.com/u/3xm6wxcjhkit6sy/3xsmjapr4u93pfa
https://live.kuaishou.com/u/3xm6wxcjhkit6sy/3xh4krh5i62tmcy
It’s glorious. Man, I miss anime looking like this. I used to buy the vhs’ as much as I could, but it got harder to find them in my location, so as a result, I never finished it, but it was fantastic overall even with the liberties they took with some established canon at the time. I hold it up as the golden standard of what a SF show could and should be. It’s actually what led to my frustration of later depictions of Ryu being a bit too stoic in games lol. I thought this was “canon” when I was younger.
The Guile fight in the early episodes is still one of the finest I’ve seen. He’s so in control and awesome.
I loved Jean Reno Charlie’s neck snaps and holds. I hope Tom, if he makes it into SF5 IS THIS MAN.
Oh snap, nice. Glad it’s not all dead till “August’s announcement”!
I can almost hear the elephants!
Cestus discrediting Viper so hard for not being a street fighter character because he dislike gadgets, while trying so hard pushing a skinny teenager that entirely uses yoyo tricks to defeat shadaloo because it has anime references and viper is not italian lol.
Sometimes you know people entirely bs and having double standard when they lack coherence on their arguments and reasoning.
