Fighting Game Characters Suck #1 - Ryu

So since I got out of uni for the holidays, I managed to find a good balance between work and free time. Enough to allow me to cogitate on some issues that I want to talk about - namely, fighting game characters.

Now, this is not going to be me talking about shitty character design, because there's probably already shitloads of threads and blogs dedicated to that. Nor is expecting any amount of depth from most fighting game characters a fair thing, especially when most are raging stereotypes to begin with. This is me talking about how some fighting lads and lasses are massive idiots who need a slap in the face and maybe some therapy. Because seriously, they do.

And who better to open up this festival of idiocy than the poster boy of fighting games, Ryu from Street Fighter?

Ah, Ryu. Your tales of martial arts mastery inspire us. Your simple design and iconic fighting style have been copied by imitators and competitors the world over. And your gripping, emotional and spiritual quest to master your teachings and become the strongest warrior is what keeps people coming back to your side of the story, again and again. Truly, you are a noble and endearing character.

Except when you think about it, that's all a steaming crock of cow shit. If you want to know why, hit the jump.

1. Ryu is incapable of showing emotion.

The major problem one encounters when trying to describe Ryu's personality is a simple one - he hasn't got one. He could be charitably described as courteous, good-natured and determined, but those are qualities that have been explored so many times by so many better characters we've marked out all the rivers. Bilbo Baggins had those qualities, but they worked because he kept his polite mannerisms even though he was way in over his head half the time, and he too could lose his temper or get scared like a human being. He wasn't also afraid to admit that he was or wasn't enjoying himself - he was glad to be in Elrond's house, and wept openly at Thorin's death, showing emotions in a realistic and endearing way.

Ryu, by contrast, never does anything that would suggest he feels any emotion. His default facial expression is that dull glare usually reserved for when you accuse someone of farting, and only occasionally does he put on this snarling grimace that looks like he stepped on a Lego brick. He speaks in a flat monotone and only raises his voice to a raging, over-the-top shout when calling out his attack names. He barely even smiles, and how can you empathise with a character who can't even perform that simple expression of human happiness? It's like trying to make us feel sorry for a floor lamp because somebody knocked it over.

But really, can you blame him? He spent most of his life up on a mountain with his master Gouken, who is pretty much as stoic and unmoving as Ryu is now. And if Gouken's Street Fighter IV ending was anything to go by, that old man wasn't exactly the fairest of teachers, forcing Ryu to do manual labour as part of his training. It shouldn't be surprising that, without any warm or compassionate interaction to form a frame of reference, the poor kid grew up unable to emote properly. He probably thinks Keanu Reeves is the height of emotional acting.

Oh, but we haven't even started on the ways in which Ryu grew up wonky...

2. Ryu is maladjusted, socially and mentally.

Let's consider these facts. Ryu was orphaned by his parents, who have never even appeared in any of the games and thus give us no reason to care about them. He spent most of his life in isolation, his only company being Gouken, his teacher, and Ken, who was an entitled jackass in those days. He had no interaction with any other kids his age or of the opposite sex, he never went to a proper school where he could develop social skills, and he had no real parental figures to help him develop mentally either. We have no idea how long he was kept away from civilization, because the games never give an exact time frame, but it was obviously long enough to do some major damage to his social skills and mental development.

Ryu is a loner who travels by himself - he detests social situations and is never seen with more than one person at a time. He has no interests outside of martial arts, doesn't interact with any other people outside of the tournaments and doesn't have what we would deem friends in the traditional sense. He never goes out for a pint with Guile, or hits the gym with Zangief, or goes to see a film with Chun-Li. Hell, he's probably completely oblivious to any sexual or romantic interest in him, although acknowledging the implication that Sakura has a raging girlboner for him makes me want to scrub myself with acid. He's obsessed with fighting and shows no interest in doing anything beyond that, forsaking socialising for the sake of his personal passions. And just speaking for myself, I wouldn't be surprised if anything involving numbers was a major stumbling block to him.

There's a word for this, and it might not be the right one. But I'm going to use it just this once: Autism. Cornwind Evil explains further.

Cornwind Evil: Man lives only to fight
Cornwind Evil: Wanders everywhere looking to fight people
Cornwind Evil: Does this more or less his whole life
Cornwind Evil: Doesn't seem to understand how to handle situations outside of fighting
Cornwind Evil: Depending on what version of the story you're going by, so obsessed with fighting he can't stand losing
Cornwind Evil: One version of how Sagat got that chest scar is he beat Ryu, and Ryu flipped out and sucker-Dragon punched him

Cornwind Evil: Ryu really does come off like he has Asperger's
Cornwind Evil: Very narrow, obsessive interests
Cornwind Evil: And I might be misremembering
Cornwind Evil: But I think there was this scene where he's meeting Ken and his family after they haven't seen each other for a while
Cornwind Evil: This is Ken, his closest friend, and he's just so AWKWARD with his family
Cornwind Evil: Like he's being yanked way out of his comfort zone

So not only is Ryu socially awkward due to a lifetime of isolation, but Gouken and Ken being his only references for human development stunted his mental development as well, exacerbating the social issue. Nice work, both of you.

3. Ryu is a bad influence on Ken, who has responsibilities outside of fighting.

Speaking of Ken, this is a man who actually has the right idea. With the money he won from the first few tournaments he entered, along with a hefty fortune, he managed to make something of himself, both in the monetary sense and in the social status sense. Now he has a drop-dead gorgeous wife, a multi-million dollar company that (apparently) rivals the Mishima Zaibatsu in value and a doting son. What he should be doing is laying back on a tropical beach somewhere, sipping vodka martinis with one hand and speed-typing forms with another whilst a dusky maiden rubs coconut oil into his abs.

What he should not be doing is constantly dragging his ass back into the ring because of his friendship with Ryu.

Dude, what the fuck are you doing? You're rich! Your life is secure! You're getting laid 24/7 and have enough money to embarrass a company that makes dinosaurs and robots on a regular basis! You have a family and a business, and with those come obligations to keep everything running smoothly as possible and make yourself happy and comfortable! You can't just drop that shit every time your wierdo karate hobo friend wants to punch you in the face some more! You're above him in every possible way and you certainly don't owe him that kind of honour, because it makes you look like a workshy tool!

Consider how Ken's regular disappearances must affect his work, to begin with. With their CEO off kicking green monster-men in the teeth, how does the Masters Foundation keep stable? Who fills in his duties whilst he's gone? How much money does he lose by not being there to make sure the company stays on track with... whatever it does? I can't imagine that Ken really puts in any leave of absence notes with whatever chairmen or executives manage the company, and considering how regularly he pulls this shit, I'm amazed the Masters Foundation isn't in severe debt by now. I wonder if Ultratech's shareholders ever look at it like a dog sizing up the dinner steak?

And then there's his family, whom he abandons for a few months every two years or so for the sake of his fighting-obsessed idiot pal. Eliza might seem understanding, might smile cheerily and bid him good luck, but who wants to bet that she secretly numbs the pain of his absence with whiskey and illicit shagging? Somewhere in Metro City, a certain pink-haired woman must be rolling in cash by now. And what of poor little Mel? What sort of upbringing is it where a kid barely sees his father except on television sometimes, and what kind of child thinks that this is an okay thing for a dad to do? This isn't exactly a healthy picture we're painting of Masters family life here.

None of this is really Ken's fault, of course. It's Ryu's, for making him feel like he has some kind of obligation. Ken obviously knows Ryu's not the best guy to hang out with, he's done it for years. So why the hell would he ever abandon his responsibilities just to entertain his dumb friend? Ryu doesn't care for anything Ken's got going, he just wants to fight him and probably couldn't give two shits about that whole wife and child thing. He constantly plays on Ken's sense of comradeship to get him to do what he wants, and the poor man has no choice but to comply out of a misplaced sense of duty to his friend. It's not like there isn't anyone else Ryu could fight, it's a fucking fighting tournament! There's no reason to drag Ken back into something he probably has no interest in anymore!

If Ken had any common sense, he'd have given up fighting for good around the time Eliza was pregnant in SFIV, knowing full well he doesn't owe Ryu shit. But thanks to that Japanese karate weirdo, it might only be a matter of time before Ken comes home to find a used condom underneath his bed. And then the sounds of raised voices and breaking furniture echoes around the Masters household, and Eliza turns up for work with a black eye and bruised ribs.

Whilst all that's going on...

4. Ryu is a terrible martial artist.

To clarify: I don't mean that Ryu is poor in his skill. After all, he took down Sagat, the perennial badass of Muay Thai in the SF world, and he's stood toe-to-to with the like of Akuma and Bison before. That takes skill as well as guts, and Ryu would never have gotten as far as he did without some level of proficiency to back him up in his endeavours.

What I mean to say is that he didn't learn shit from Gouken.

See, Ryu and Gouken both practice a form of martial arts called Ansatsuken. The term is actually a blanket one for martial arts designed to kill, which is what the art Ryu practices was designed for. Now, keep in mind that Gouken, a gentle peace-lover, deliberately re-engineered his take on the style to take out the lethal elements. He uses non-lethal palm strikes, throws his Hadoukens with one hand and only ever uses the Shoryuken, the big killing move of the style, as a last resort - hell, his super is even called the "Forbidden Hand". So, it's reasonable to assume that he'd teach this form of it to his pupils, on account of not wanting to turn them into killers.

But Ryu had obviously zoned out on that class, because he doesn't use any of those techniques.

I'm not kidding. He consistently uses the Shoryuken, which (need I remind you) is the one move Gouken won't do unless the odds are stacked against him. It's the greatest killing move in the art, capable of tearing a man's chest open - and that's when the user isn't even trying. And here's this douchebag throwing them out like Sainsbury's putting Easter candy on sale. And we're supposed to believe that this guy is an honorable warrior who fights only for the thrill of it and has never taken a life. If that was the case, he'd ditch using the move and use the Sengokushoha - the palm strike - instead, because he should have been aware that it was dangerous.

"Oh, but what if Gouken taught him the move?"

Then that old man needs to get back on his meds. Because seriously, Gouken knows how dangerous the Shoryuken is, and he doesn't advocate the use of any techniques that kill at all. If he had at any point showed the move to Ryu, it shouldn't have been a part of the training, and he ought to have told him never to use it at all. But either he didn't, or Ryu was distracted by a pretty butterfly, because he doesn't even think twice about using a move that can kill a man and not, say, the safer techniques his master should have recommended. Gouken must be shaking his head in disappointment.

"Oh, but Ryu modified the technique to be less dangerous!"

Bullshit. A jumping uppercut to the jaw is still a jumping uppercut to the jaw, and no matter which way you slice it there is still a major risk of injury. Yes, the different versions of it look different visually, but it's still the same deadly technique over and over again, and that means the power is still there to kill somebody. We only have the word of the games and other material that Ryu's Shoryuken isn't lethal, and we can't even trust that - he used that technique to split Sagat open in a fit of rage, for fuck's sake! All it takes is for the guy to lose his temper or forget himself, misjudge the angle or velocity slightly and crack! He's killed a dude.

So why doesn't Ryu just stop using the Shoryuken and just use the techniques Gouken uses? Well, either it's because he didn't pay attention...

...or he just didn't care.

5. Ryu is a massive, power-hungry hypocrite.

As part of his ongoing quest to become stronger, Ryu constantly fights an inner battle with the Satsui no Hadou, or Surge of Murderous Intent. A dark force that stirs within the hearts of all martial artists, it grants unbelievable power and strength at the cost of a warrior's humanity, and it's practitioners become so consumed by the desire to win they become murderous killers. We're supposed to believe that Ryu hopes to be able to overcome this deadly power, becoming stronger without ever needing it, and avoiding the fate of Akuma, who wields the power like a kid with his dad's shotgun.

Except we can't believe it, because that's bullshit.

Here's a direct quote from the Street Fighter Wiki concerning the Satsui no Hadou:

"To tap into the Satsui no Hado, a person must be so consumed with the desire for winning, or else possess such intense rage, that they are willing to murder. As such, only people who push themselves to be the best at any cost can take full advantage of it."

...so Ryu, who wants to become the best, wants to surpass the murder energy. Yet his desire to become the best only makes the awakening of the murder energy inevitable and unavoidable.

See the problem here? Ryu claims to "walk a path without end". Yet his path does have an end - because it's the same damn path as Akuma took! Granted, Akuma took the easy way out by meditating in a cave for a bit, but he too was driven by the desire to become the best, and in the end he did - he literally punches asteroids out of the sky now! Ryu wants to master his style and get stronger without becoming consumed by the Satsui no Hadou, but his getting stronger is what causes the stuff to manifest in the first place, and he can't "surpass" it because its influence gets stronger whenever he does.

Ryu can't possibly be ignorant of this. He can't not know that his journey of self-discovery is going to end the same was as Akuma's did, and that his own desires are causing his downfall. He wants to fight and win and get stronger, but that's the whole point of the evil thing he's trying to avoid, and don't tell me that, dumb as he is, Ryu isn't aware of the ramifications. If he had any brain, he'd stop what he was doing, maybe switch out his techniques or change his philosophy, anything, just to get himself out of this self-destructive Oroboros.

So why doesn't he?

Simple. Because he's a lying hypocrite.

He knows that, at this point, the Satsui no Hadou is the only further path for him. And he wants it. He can't be in denial about it, because it's come close to taking him over once or twice and nothing he's tried can stop it, so why resist it? He knows that he's got to master the Satsui no Hadou at some point, but like the dumb kid he is, he's taking the long road to it. And, like a dumb kid, he's constructed this facade of a noble warrior who won't succumb to evil power, lying his face off to everyone he meets to avoid revealing his true intentions. He claims to refuse the Satsui no Hadou - but really, he wants it. He craves the stuff like I crave pizza.

"Oh, but he rejected it in his SFIV ending!"

That doesn't mean shit. Ryu's whole existence is about getting stronger, and the Satsui no Hadou is the best road available to him. Yet since the power tends to drive people mad, he wants to avoid that and be able to control it, not have it control him. The times he seems to "reject" it are because he doesn't believe he's ready for it and wants to get even stronger so he can handle it when it comes.

"Oh, but Ryu's too noble and pure-hearted to let it take him over!"

A-hem.

Art by Longai

The fact that Evil Ryu exists is proof. He's not too noble and pure-hearted to let the Satsui no Hadou take him over. Fuck that "hypothetical character" bullshit, he's let it happen to him - multiple times, if the events of the games are any proof. And every time, his friends have had to drag him out of it and get him back on the right road so his self-destructive habits don't hurt anybody else. But he's plunged back into it every time, like a struggling addict with recovery issues - Street Fighter Alpha, Capcom vs SNK, Street Fighter IV. It's happened time and time again, and by now his buddies should have twigged that something is dangerously wrong with their karate hobo friend, but like everyone else in this fucking world they're a pack of gibbering baboons who can't read the writing on the wall.

"Oh, but Gouken sealed it away before Street Fighter III happened!"

Did he, though? Because if Gouken was dumb enough to not take Ryu to school, make him run around fetching water and show him a deadly technique, then I seriously doubt he's smart enough to pull that off. And even then, in Street Fighter III Akuma's still kicking around and trying to get Ryu to give in to the darkness, so Gouken can't have done a good job of it. Or maybe he didn't succeed at all, and Ryu's still trying to beef himself up to the point where he can use the power without fear of harming himself. Wheras Akuma's basically saying "Yo, dude, you're doin' wrong, come to mah crib and get a hit of dis mad demon dope".

Oh, and a hobo being able to afford traveling the world? Bullshit. Either he's stowing away and somehow not getting arrested for it, or he's leeching off Ken to pay for it - adding yet another list of grievances he's bringing to the already broken Masters family.

So, in summary, we have before us an emotionless, maladjusted homewrecker who doesn't pay attention in class and lies to his friends in his quest for ultimate power.

Well done, Ryu. You fucking douchebag.

Next time on FGCS: Why Mai and Andy should just break up already.