Plot twist: Rashid is actually French and only goes to the Middle East to visit it grandparents on holidays.
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Oh, wow. That’s pretty cool to know.
IIRC, SFV is the first SF game since the console ports of Alpha 2 to be properly translated to Arabic.
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Sorry for the double post but I found some interesting info from the X-Men v SF Japanese Wikipedia page:
“本作の開発の開始についてはカプコンのトップとマーヴルが契約を交わした時に、マーヴル側の「今度はちゃんといいものと悪もののキャラを入れてくれ」という意見に対し、「どうせならクロスオーバーさせては」とのカプコン側の企画がきっかけとなっている”
Putting it through Google translate says that Marvel wanted heroes and villains and Capcom laughed at the idea.
“アーケード版の初期のバージョンでは、キャラクター選択時のBGMは『X-MEN』と『ストリートファイターZERO』の両方が流れる仕様となっていた。『X-MEN』のキャラクターにカーソルを置くと『X-MEN CHILDREN OF THE ATOM』のキャラクター選択BGMが流れ、『ストリートファイター』のキャラクターにカーソルを置けば『ストリートファイターZERO2』のキャラクター選択BGMが流れる、といったものである。しかし、後期のバージョンでは『X-MEN CHILDREN OF THE ATOM』のBGMに統一されている”
This seems to say that the staff wanted the Alpha 2 character select theme to play if an SF character was highlighted while the COTA select theme would’ve played if a X-Men character was selected. TBF though, Alpha 2’s character select theme seems really out of place for the XMVSF OST.
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Falke’s blog post on Capcom’s German website confirms she is in fact German. I wish her bio would reflect that
http://www.capcom-germany.de/2018/04/falke-der-guardian-hawk-erscheint-am-24-april-in-der-street-fighter-v-arcade-edition/
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Fun part is when you think germans could be the ones offended by german girl getting simil-nazi design, while german website seem the only to say she’s german and call It a day lol
This Is good part of what’s wrong on current Capcom lol
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When it comes to the Middle East, it was smart decision by Capcom.
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As an Libyan myself, I think they did a somewhat good job on properly representing Rashid’s character even if he’s very bland IMO. Worst case scenario they could’ve confused him with Spanish/Turkish or even worse, South Asian culture as Japan is known for doing, at least the Spanish confusion makes sense. I don’t think we would’ve cared if he was a villain, for God’s sake Tiger Mask 2 is extremely popular in the Arab world and its antagonist was an arab man, just as long as it wasn’t an outright racist/offensive stereotype like an extremist terrorist.
The Arabs really HATE Pullum Purna just because she looks more South Asian than actually Arab. The new KOF villain was actually designed by an Arab woman and Arab social media is already liking over her and she’s a villain.
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Pullum Purna looks like she is straight out of 1001 Nights or Sinbad. She is literally the Arab Chun-Li and one of the better and more Street Fighter designs that came out of SF EX.
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She has more Indian elements than Arab TBF. I don’t hate her as a character but her design seems to be classic Capcom stereotypes which isn’t bad IMO but I’d still say that Rashid is the far better Arab character in terms of actually looking Arab.
Edit: Although I’ll say that her FL look definitely looks more Arab than her EX look.
Rashid’s outfit resembles more closely Indian punjabi than the Gulf Arab traditional dress.
Pullum Purna is from Saudi Arabia, so there is an even bigger disparity between design and reality given how that country is/was in the 90s.
The point is not accuracy, it is the feelings that are evoked. Capcom’s designs rely heavily on the collective idea of what a group, culture, or sub-culture is visualized as (at the time of their creation), then they take that and play with it. Their designs are fun before anything else.
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I’ll give you that, considering the recent rise in Indian/South Asian culture within the Gulf itself, particularly within the higher social class people in the gulf regions. Although in the 90’s, Saudi Arabia was definitely different so even then Pullum Purna was a bit inaccurate, let’s not forget that this was the same time period Disney’s Aladdin came out where Arabs complained that the characters’ faces looked more SA than Arabian.
Arab as an ethnicity tends to be a misnomer, therefore those complaints have no foundation in reality. Arabs from North Africa look notably different from Gulf Arabs who look notably different from Levantine Arabs. You are also bound to find Arabs that look South Asian in the mix due to the shared history.
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Stylized designs like Pullum or the Disney characters are never going to look like proper ethnic portraits, they’re just meant to be their own thing. Maybe that was the issue there.
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Pullum >>> Rashid
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Back to SFEX and SFEX2 Pullum had 2 different designs
First was awesome and one of best SFEX designs, second was boring af
About connecting with the audience of the character nation/ethnicity etc, that’s nice and all but should be absolutely secondary to keep the game art style coherence
If a game (like SF does) have in it’s DNA to pull huge anime stereotipe, accurate or not, so be It
Keep the cast style unified should be only priority
PS: i like Rashid design, just wish they had man the fuck up and gave him a nationality.
Outrage Is like a fart, smell like crap but that’s It.
Capcom ruined SFV reputation in other ways far worse without give any fucks, but got all scared about be not-pc lol
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Tbh as much i like Pullum, just very first Pullum was a better Capcom design, but that’s It
Rashid overall it’s a far better SF character
Better than all other successive Pullum designs
Better fighting style
Better story/development
Rashid standard (and story alt even more lol) may suffer a bit of being bland due capcom’s soft balls, but overall he’s a good addition
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Bigger plot twist
Rashid’s “Zangief like” granpa is Karnov, the man, the myth, the legend
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Sf6 should debut zubaZzzz
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