I like his way of thinking 
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My god, I haven’t checked the SRK forums in a long time, and when I’m back, I stumble upon this beauty of a question!
We all know that Ryu is the established face of the SF series. But with the initial roster being so small, each character shines as their own lead character in their own story. So while Ryu may be plastered on all the posters and covers, every character is also unique in their backstories, development, and motivations.
If SF’s story was all about Ryu, and how every character was changed or empowered by him, we would have a story as interesting as Ryu is. And making him the undeniable, God-sent protagonist would make the story feel unengaging. But by having multiple characters, it brings color and life into the lore of SF. And every fan has a story or character that they gravitate to more than others (even Ryu).
That’s the great thing about SF endings: there are a multitude of them, one for each character. And as a player, you put together the story with every ending, cutscene, fight, dialogue, etc you unlock. Each fighter has their own goals for fighting. And rather follow one “hero” for the entire game, and how each fighter has their lives affected by said hero, each fighter is treated as their own person.
Speaking of motivations, here’s a rundown of every SFII’s fighter’s motivations, and their reason for entering the World Warrior Tournament.
- Ryu: Becoming stronger
- Ken: Find and face an old rival
- E. Honda: Glorify Sumo Wrestling
- Blanka: (None? Feral animal who loved to unleash his wild side?)
- Zangief: National Pride
- Dhalsim: raise money for his village
- Guile: revenge against M. Bison for killing Nash
- Chun-Li: Revenge against M. Bison for killing her father
Shadaloo is the main organizer of the tournament, and the main antagonistic group of the SF lore (barring Akuma). Out of the 8 original characters, 2 of them have motivations directly impacted by Shadaloo and their leader: M. Bison: Guile and Chun-Li.
This is interesting because they are two characters who are more invested in taking down the main antagonist than any one else. And yet, they aren’t considered important enough to be the main symbol of the series. (Chun-Li being the exception because she is such an iconic character, not only for female fighting game characters, but for female characters in general). But not even Ryu has any stake in the fall of M. Bison and his organization.
(And that’s what makes him being the one to defeat Bison at the end of the SF5 story is one of the most unsatisfying, unfulfilling, and laziest final battles ever. But relax, i’m here to talk about SFII, crits for SF5 will come later.)
Disclaimer: For much of this, I’m putting most of my focus on Chun-Li (being the resident Chun-Li expert, main, and master.) Most of what i say can be applied to Guile, and even Charlie nash. but for the sake of this post, i’m stickin with the waifu I know best.
Chun-Li could be considered a very strong lead for the SFII timeline because much of her life and journey has been predicated to the murder of her father by M. Bison. She joined Interpol at the early age of 18. And has spent most of her life bringing criminals to justice. This was more than just a means to slowly get closer to Shadaloo, but it also serves a way to honor her father as he was involved with law enforcement as well. So Chun-li’s reason for becoming an agent of Interpol opens up a lot of depth for her character.
It also brings upon a conflict of interest for her as she has to walk a fine line between Justice and Revenge. The police officer in her wants to bring Bison down for all the crime’s he’s commited and to stop his organization from terrorizing the world. But the daughter of a murdered father in her wants to beat Bison for taking away the most precious and most important figure in her life for her entire childhood.
Right away before we Chun-Li starts her story in the SFII timeline, her ties to Shadaloo, her investment in bringing down this evil organization, and how she wants that more than anything in the world already makes Chun-Li the most interesting character, and the one you want to root for the most.
Now I’ve established why Chun-Li is the most deserving to take down the main bad guy of the game. In actuality, doing so might prove to be much harder than you expect.
You see, Chun-Li is a very capable fighter in her own right, especially with years of training, ki blasts, and the most dnagerous legs to ever walk the planet. However, with m. Bison’s psycho power, he unfortunately is a league above her.
(Harking back to SFV, with the power of the black moons, Bison was easily able to dispatch of any fighter that opposed him. It wold take the combined efforts of everyone, and the self sacrifice of Nash to give Ryu a fighting chance)
it’s hard to say what M. Bison’s power level was in SFII, compared to other incarnations before or since. But I do know that it takes a lot just to get him on a similar playing field as him. So the chances of Chun-Li defeating M. Bison by herself without making the lore feel unrealistic isn’t likely.
There are two possibilities that i see for Chun-Li to get the closure she wants.
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Chun-Li takes down Shadaloo indirectly while a most powerful and capable fighter takes on M. Bison. Ryu, and Akuma are the only two fighters that seem to match with M. Bison’s power. So having them duke it out while Chun-Li and crew take down his organization from the inside would be a realistic approach, and what most likely happened in canon.
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(And honestly, this may seem more of a wish for how they handled Chun-Li in the SFV story). Role Reversal: Chun-Li could very well be the one to fight M. Bison, but while she is, all the others do all they can to weaken M. Bison as much as they can until Chun-li remains as the anchor. Bison is weakend but threatening as ever. And Chun-Li remains as the last hope in saving humanity. With this, Chun-Li fulfills both her justice and revenge thirst. And would cap the story very well for Chun-Li’s SFII arc.
Chun-Li is a very capable fighter, and like all the other fighters, she has her reasons for participating in the tournament. Who can say what would happen if Chun-li were the main poster girl of the entire franchise over Ryu. Or how things wuld’ve turned out if they made Chun-li the lead character of the SF story. But regardless, she’s still a great character. And if SFII were to retcon this story and have Chun-Li be front and center, I only have just one simple request…
PLEASE DO NOT, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO THIS!!!
LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES!!!
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Thank you interesting thoughts!
Overall a good post, I very much agree with you on things where her heart and motivations are very strong and making a very strong and direct connection to Shadaloo and her need for it to fall.
If we’re talking about hypothetical series and such, I’ve got some ideas.
Let’s say you wanted to make a series on Street Fighter and weren’t married to the canon in the way SFIIV was, I’d go with an ensemble cast, but I’d keep Chun Li as one of the mains, or if we’re in an alternate universe where they optioned Legend of Chun Li as an anime/animated american series, I’d go about things like this.
-Ryu and Chun may already know each other, her respecting the fight may have allowed them to have crossed paths before
-Going from an investigator’s route, you can have Chun encounter many of the cast, learn from people, have people join her quest etc.
-By starting from the ground up, you see how life goes from things like cops, robbers, crime, all the way to the world of martial arts and ki. As the story progresses it carries you along by introducing some more of the fantastical concepts.
-Expanding on the above, we could really see Shadaloo’s impact and damage on the world in a new fashion. We could see the compromised politicians, industries, kidnapped and experimented people. The Macro and Micro levels. A bit ago we were wondering if Bison did indeed take over all of Thailand and install a puppet government. It’d be cool to get a different taste of just how big in scope Shadaloo is.
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Oh random question, does Rolento’s army have a name? I know he used to be part of American’s Red Beret’s before he went nuts, but as he is now, I’m not sure if there’s anything official??
Agree Chun li has better exploration plot than Ryu in a journey against Shadaloo, Ryu is more on Alpha series.
If you were Capcom what are your thoughts with Claw leaving Cammy in Delta Red? Why would Claw would choose Delta Red? What is so special with Delta Red for Claw?
And also why would Claw appreciate Cammy’s beauty than Chun li?
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It is probably (in my thoughts) because after Interpol, Delta Red are the next biggest thorn in Shadaloo’s operations especially since they’ve compromised their UK bases. Vega puts her there because he knows that should Shadaloo continue, he’ll be seeing more of Cammy. For all we know, Vega might’ve had a run-in with them during his missions.
Vega believes that beauty can be brought about through suffering, the reason he thinks he’s so handsome is because of his dark past with his abusive stepfather bringing pain to him and his mother.
So, Cammy would be more beautiful because her very existence is suffering. Unlike Chun-Li, Cammy didn’t have a proper upbringing, in other words: she hasn’t truly lived. She’s just there to become a replacement body. So Vega would be attracted to her because she has experienced true suffering and the amnesia she has is only going to amp up his thirst
Summary
The real reason is because Cammy is the objectively better character
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I’m not thinking about the UK counter part or whatsoever
Actually I was thinking about Claw’s rationale because he is a narcissist?
Why Delta Red instead of a choice that would turn her into a normal living person like a hospital, church or a household with old folks?
Since he is part of Shadaloo and Delta Red is a potential threat to Shadaloo’s operation?
What benefit does Claw is seeking into it?
It’s like he is also secretly against Shadaloo and wanted it’s downfall too?
Because it’s an impractical choice and a complicated situation for giving a potential subject(Cammy) that can spoil Shadaloo’s internal operation to an opposing group.
What I was trying to know is what are everyone’s potential theories and opinions about Vega’s rationale in that case? so answers may varies.
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In other news…
Storm had license Darkstalkers brand…
Im still waiting for a Haggar action figure and a SF2 Ryu!!
He enjoys fighting and tormenting her, as seen in A3 where he displayed regret that Bison wants her dead. Vega revels in pain and seeks to bring it out of others, putting Cammy in the opposition is the win-win situation since she’s safe from Bison and he gets to battle her thus getting to indulge in his interests.
I never believed that Vega was against Shadaloo. He just didn’t care for Bison’s goals (deeming the Doll project ugly) and was in Shadaloo so that he could have a platform to easily carry out his activities. Then again, all the 4 Kings except FANG didn’t really bother with Shadaloo’s true intentions. Even if Shadaloo is destroyed, he’ll still hunt.
With Shadaloo now gone, it’ll be interesting to see what Vega is going to get up to without the safety net Shadaloo provides for him.
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Interesting thoughts too. Lets see what other thoughts specially those that are into Claw or Cammy.
When scrubs cry and complain about Bison because they don’t know how to play neutral
Bison: “Delicious.”
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So I’ve been listening to a remix of Necalli’s theme by Saitoshi
It’s slower paced and I really dig it, but between the title and slower pace, it makes me think of some of your alternate takes on Necalli. I’m trying to remember who came up with the idea of him being a tragic warrior who, in trying to fend off invaders from capturing his land and people, fell into the SNH and was lost, (Was it Doctrine Dark? Bakfromon?) but this theme reminds me of it.
Man, it actually hurts. Like at parts (especially the section that starts at 0:28) I can almost see a quiet Mayan village, Necalli lifting up his son and putting him on his shoulders, making a flexing motion and saying “with these arms I shall build, with these arms, I shall raise you, with these arms I shall protect you” or something akin to an ooooooold episode of Naruto I saw back in the beginning of the show’s lifetime where a villager, kinda flexed and in a sad flashback told his kids “I shall protect you with these arms”
With this mix, I can see moments of him having a second of lucidity, thinking back to his former life, but having vague, fuzzy memories, then his confusion turns to rage and hatred and he’s back into full eternal wandering murder-mode. One, having him be a long-lived, tortured fighter that was unable to die fits more in with SF than some mystical golem that absorbs people and has some unexplained connection to death and the spiritual realm (if Charlie’s nightmare is to be believed as literal).
I dunno, just rambling and listening to a catch theme.
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Done a quick edit
That’s what i mean with more Gato-like
Less pale skin/hair, toned down(but still visible) scar, LOT of less modern bullshit and more kung fu style, removed the heels too lol
Pretty rough/quick edit, could surely be improved, but i will have liked more that way… more or less it show what i seen potential wise in the second design
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I liked the original design.
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Solid redesign work
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Impressive. Could use a bit more purple around the abdomen area, but for a rough job it’s pretty great!
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Thanks
While at it, few days ago i finished the Ryu/Ken one, plus updated a bit a two old ones 
(right click -> visualize image for correct size, small preview fuck up lol)
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The problem with concept art is that even the jacket is oddly in design it’s like a cross of a chinese top and jacket? With the white hair before he felt like part of the NEST saga.
The grapler gang art looks good.
Agree, thought that too indeed
Ever in the mood of quick solutions, a way can be simply increase the jacket having it a bit longer and less open.
On other hand also remove part of the pants to steal some visual weight from there… i like also that because it tone down the “hakama pants” kind of silhuette, as it’s something i associate more with a jap style char rather than a chinese one
I liked many core ideas of it too, it’s likely the dropped concept i called most in SFV
I liked how it remind me a mix of Gato with an hint of Duo Lon (another good SNK design)
On other hand i did’nt liked vibe wise it feel too me closer to the tragic Falcoon era of KoF (or to Blazeblue/Guilty Gear) than SF
To have him in SF you need to have him a bit more straight strong on fundamentals
Also was’nt into the bizzarro modern clothes thing, i think SF3 Yun was more classy at “rebel” against traditional attire without need to go that far from SF
On more “casual” clothes, i liked the first next to Ryu
It’s not possible see much, but it fit more the mix you need in SF
But i find it less interessing though, while the other offer a more memorable image and nail way more the silent deadly guy you expect from Gen’s teachings
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