Another Rufus blog... A 1UP classic from May 15, 2008

Hello friends, it looks like I'm on a bit of a Street Fighter IV kick again. We might as well keep the train going with some more random observations. Today's rant takes us back to look at the place and purpose of nobodies favorite SF fat man Rufus. It's funny timing that I bring him up as Capcom in Japan and the US has made no official mention of this guy. Even better, Cap USA wants to make 3 figurines of the new lineup and are letting fans vote. Rufus is nowhere to be found. Is it possible that the fan reaction was so strong that they buried him or are they holding him plus other characters as a surprise for when the game is launched? It might turn out to be like Tekken in which some characters appear after a certain amount of time has passed. Let's hope that some other SF-universe characters appear in the lineup.

Now I have nothing against fat people, I'm a fat guy. I also don't have a problem with fat fighting game characters. In fact, I'd like to see more of them, provided that they are consistent with what has already been established in the series. Just the other day a new character was introduced for the boxing game Ready2Rumbe 3 Facebreaker. He's a fat boxing master named Steve Talking Head. The game is supposed to be cartoonish and over-the-top, so he makes sense in that lineup... Make of him what you will.

I've already spoken at length about the subject with my origins of Rufus blog. In case you don't want to read old news I'll sum up some of my gripes. A character like Bob from Tekken moves too quickly for a man of his girth. It's as if they did some motion capture moves and thought it would be funny if the animations were stuck on a fat character. It seems that Rufus is even larger than Bob yet seems to move faster. Maybe Rufus was inspired by strongman Gene Rychlak. He's also a big guy with wild hair and a trucker mustache that bench pressed a thousand pounds. Sure he's strong, but can he move fast? Is he flexible? I doubt it.

While thinking about this character I began wondering what it is that I don't like about Rufus. 1UP member Smashbro mentioned that it could be the way obese people are demonized in US culture. But my issues are more about his speed, lack of muscle definition and seemingly weightless mass, not any bias against fat people. 1UP member Marc lamented that he seems to be the only one on 1UP willing to try this game. I never said that I wouldn't play SF IV or that I wouldn't try out this character. In fact if there is a location test anywhere in the southland then I'll be there, getting in line and trying each character at least once. I'm also thinking about which console to pick up based on which will have a better joystick for the game. To think that I'll pass on a SF IV after waiting so long after III is absurd. Remember that I got the Wii for NiGHTS? Or the Xbox for Jet Set Radio Future?

I've said that large characters tend to move slower in SF games, Rufus is contrary to that. Smashbro mentioned that the Japanese tradition of sumo might explain why they created him and seem to be more accepting of this large character than the US is. The US demonizes obesity yet has a large population that is overweight. My biases might be based from a cultural P.O.V. I began thinking about who Rufus reminded me of, aside from Gene Rychlak and where his place could be in the Street Fighter universe. I began thinking about large characters from cartoons, movies and even real life. Who were the ones that worked and why? As far as fighting games go, the fat guys in Final Fight worked, King Heart in Fist of the North Star worked and Karnov from Fighter's History Dynamite worked as well.

Heck, Karnov could even inflate himself and become even more massive than Rufus, yet he worked in the game because he also had an assortment of mystical properties. Karnov could breath fire, teleport and float, he was a fat doppleganger of Dhalsim. In the context of his game these things worked, but this is a different game. The issues that I have with Rufus and the other new characters are because I feel that Capcom is betraying their own design legacy. Actually part of the problem is that DIMPS is developing this game and their approach to character design is different than the classic Capcom formula. I'll talk about it more tomorrow but I strongly feel that Rufus is just a more complete vision of the character Boyd that DIMPS had put in their 2.5D fighter Rumble Fish.

I couldn't just leave it at that. Like a scab I have to keep picking at the design until it starts bleeding. Where did Rufus come from? What was it about his costume that works or doesn't? Yellow jumpsuit, unzipped to his belly with built-in pads? What about that ponytail and facial hair? Looking at Rufus' trucker mustache I was reminded of the larger-than-life character of Bull Hurley from the movie Over the Top.

I noticed that even though Bull, as played by the late character actor Rick Zumwalt was massive, he wasn't obese. I began wondering how "fat" a character could get and still be valid in the SF universe. I began wondering how big a person could be and still remain a valid fighter. Here is where the distinction between what "fits" in the real world and what "fits" in SF has to be made. We are willing to suspend our disbelief up to a point. If the point is crossed then that character becomes redundant, broken or laughable. At some point something has to be done with the character and design to make him or her fit into the game. This is the part that I think Capcom and DIMPS is missing with Rufus. They are not separating his purpose from his moves. The reason for my thinking of that actually goes back to the character of Bull and the movie he was in. The real arm wrestling legend at the time, Cleve Dean, makes a few cameos but isn't the last person that Stallone faces. According to the Wiki page the filmmakers didn't think that audiences would believe that Stallone could beat Dean.

Wait a minute. We could believe that Stallone could beat Bull but not Dean? How much more massive and imposing was Dean over Hurley?

At his peak in the late 70's / early 80's Cleve Dean was a multiple time world champion. He simply dominated his opponents. The reason for this was because of his tremendous size and strength. He was about 6' 7" and over 450 lbs. easily dwarfing Stallone and even some of his competition. His girth beguiled his opponents, he wasn't just a mountain of a man but rather a mountain of a man with lots of muscle. Like a modern-day Paul Bunyan, Cleve became synonymous with power.

Cleve represents a certain athletic aesthetic that is older than most people realize. Throughout history some of the strongest men in the world haven't always looked like bodybuilders. Some of the most powerful figures in myth have been on the heavy side. The giants and titans of ancient Greek and Norse mythology were usually heavy-set. The legendary Olympic weightlifter Vasili Alexeyev was another mountain of a man but he also did the unthinkable. Before his time many thought it would be impossible to lift more than 500 lbs. in the clean and jerk. Even though there were many strong weightlifters in that era, part of the reason for not being able to break the mark was psychological. Before his record-setting lift his coaches told him that he would be lifting 497 lbs. something that he had done in the past. As he lifted it he thought it felt heavier than normal but pushed himself to complete the cycle. Once he broke the barrier many in the sport realized that the human body had even more strength potential.

But the incredible strength of Cleve or Vasili doesn't mean much in the fighting arena. Grappler Royce Gracie once said a person with an average build that is experienced with judo would be able to beat a person with a bodybuilder physique and no fighting experience. There seems to be a lot to his reasoning. Big, tough guys that know a little fighting are usually taken out by smaller, experienced MMA fighters. The only large people that knowingly have fighting ability are sumo wrestlers. I've already mentioned that sumo wrestlers have a lot of muscle underneath their mass. More than that they have technique. Being absurdly strong is one thing but most sumos are evenly matched, they need technique to counter the strength. They need technique to decide a winner. A champion like Akebono made for a great sumo wrestler because he had the raw size and strength of Cleve or Vasili but combined it with impeccable fighting technique and strategies.

This is where I don't understand the purpose of Rufus. Street Fighter is already filled with archetypical strongmen. Zangief is a giant, bearded version, of Alexander Karelin. Like Alexander, Zangief is capable of superhuman feats of strength with his wrestling ability. E. Honda is a champion-class sumo wrestler, a kabuki-painted yokozuna. Where does Rufus fit between those other big men? He doesn't seem to have the design or purpose of the legendary strongmen I've mentioned. Instead he is a fat guy that knows kung-fu and moves really, really fast. He jumps fast, punches and kicks fast and has fast super attacks. Zangief and Honda are slower by comparison.

It just doesn't make sense to me. I'd love to see Rufus as massive as his is now, playing sickly powerful but also slow. A middleman between Zangief and Honda. Or a "slimmer" version, one that is still chubby but also fast and more reminiscent of Sammo Hung. But a Rufus that is both absurdly fat and fast? That, like Bob from Tekken, is a stretch and I don't think I'm the only one that thinks so. At some point character design stopped being great. It stopped evolving logically and just became absurd. I'm not going to lie and say that 2D fighters all had great designs, there were some awful designs back in the day. However the third dimension really brought the worst designs to life. Advances is animation and 3D modeling allowed a character of any shape or size to move as lightly as an olympic gymnast or as fast as a professional boxer.

When did the gatekeeper to great fighting character design go on holiday? Wish I could have been there in his stead, some characters would have never gotten the greenlight. All I can do now is point out the tragedies and lament the days gone bye. What do you think. Do fat characters have a place in fighting games? Is it about time or just a gimmick so far? Am I making too much about nothing? Does Rufus work in SF IV? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Representation Matters! Or, what happened to Birdie, final part...

 

This whole series was sparked after seeing what the Street Fighter V team had done to Birdie. Obviously I did not like it. Nowhere in the legacy of Birdie's previous appearances was he ever presented as a fat slob. Why would the studio start doing this to him now? In an interview with EventHubs Matt Dahlgren the Director of Brand Marketing & eSports at Capcom said of the updated designs "A good example for our tone is Birdie… I don't think anyone really saw him coming, but we had this really cool character design — he's practically a new character in himself — but he doesn't take up one of the slots we have for brand new fighters." If Birdie is "practically a new character", with mostly new moves then why not introduce a new character in that spot? Why would they force Birdie into a template that was not his original? My friend challenged me to redesign Birdie so that he would make sense in Street Fighter V. I said that was not why I was upset with the design. Capcom did not redesign Ken, Ryu, Chun-Li, Cammy or the Dictator for the game. Granted they discolored the skin of Charlie Nash and left him with scars and staples but that was part of his return. If the studio did not need to change any of the other returning characters why would it be acceptable to do that to Birdie? I saw two reasons why, because he was black or because he was a punk. If there was a third reason I'd like to hear it, especially from the producer.

Representation was one of the most important things that defined society yet was also something rarely spoken of. We lived in a post-racial world where every member of society had an equal opportunity to advance. Or so that was what we were taught. It was something that the majority, the people at the top of the social ladder, did not necessarily see or understand. Minorities by comparison could feel the effects of representation on a daily basis. They did not always see themselves in television, movies or games. If they did the people were often portrayed with negative stereotypes. These images added up. They effected the psyche of consumers, they became subconscious biases. Years of seeing minorities in only one light, of hearing about minorities spoken about in only one way, especially in the news, had a detrimental effect on society. Just see how divided the USA was when the words "illegal immigrants" or "thugs" were spoken on television. They were trigger words. Those words caused a reaction far greater than their original meaning. This post-racial society was not as inclusive and welcoming as we would like it to be. The images that audiences were bombarded with on a daily basis could be toxic. Pictures and videos could be laced with layers and layers of subversive messages. The way minorities were visualized was more powerful than any derogatory term.

 

Fans had supported Street Fighter for almost 30 years because it introduced us to a library of fighters of every color and from every nation. These characters were not all heavy-handed stereotypes and that was part of the reason why they were so popular. During the early days of Street Fighter II's development Anabebe, Great Tiger, Zhi Li and Vodka Gobalsy were a sampling of stereotypes that the studio designers had identify and break. In doing so they were freed from preconceptions, they were able to create a title with more diversity and inclusiveness than any other fighting game ever made. Only in later revisions was it decided that the fighters should come from different walks of life. The musician from Jamaica and the chef from Mexico were two of the weakest reasons to introduce a new character. The fighter became secondary to the profession. Which was an odd choice considering what the name of the game was.

If you were not a member of a minority group it could be hard to explain what the images in media meant to us. For example it was hard for me to find positive Mexican-American role models on US television when I was growing up. I think officer Poncherello from the show CHIPs was the only person I could remember. Everyone else that remotely looked like a member of my family was usually a bad guy that spoke broken English and had no redeeming qualities. There weren't any Latino game characters that I could think of while growing up, let alone in a popular game. Many years ago when I heard that a Mexican would be added to the roster of Super Street Fighter II I was elated. It was as if the people at the top of the ladder were validating our culture. T. Hawk had some unique moves and a distinct style that worked well compared to the other fighters. More than 15 years later when a masked Mexican wrestler was announced for Street Fighter IV I was over the moon with excitement. Pro wrestling was something that Mexico was known for, now would be our chance to shine. Or so I thought. Then I saw El Fuerte, then I listened to him, then I played as him. This was not what Mexican wrestling was about. This was not the best masked wrestler that Capcom could have come up with. At least he was not the best masked wrestler that the previous designs teams could have come up with. El Fuerte was a joke and when T. Hawk returned he was a joke too. Then a Turk was introduced and he was a joke. Then a fat character was introduced and he was a joke. I wondered what had happened in Street Fighter IV. The diversity in the cast was an excuse to point and laugh at those that did not have traditional Asian fighting roots.

The best example on the importance of positive representation came from actress Whoopi Goldberg. “Well, when I was nine years old, Star Trek came on, I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, ‘Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there’s a black lady on television and she ain’t no maid!’ I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be.” The television show Star Trek was a very progressive show, especially for 1963 sensibilities. There was more diversity in that series than in just about any other show on television. Nichelle Nichols played Lt. Uhura, the communications officer that Whoopi spoke of. She carried herself with great dignity and was never written as a second-class citizen. It was a very promising look at the future, one in which all minorities were represented and they all had equally important jobs. Whoopi would find herself playing a character called Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was role that influenced a whole new generation of fans. The thing was that Whoopi's performance did not only effect black audiences but also white ones as well. Whoopi was joined by black actors Michael Dorn as Lt. Worf and Levar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (who was also playing a blind character) in one of the most inclusive casts on television. But that level of representation had fallen by the wayside in recent years.

Today young minorities were not watching television, they were playing video games. They were learning what society thought of them based on the games they played. Since the majority of game heroes were white males then it was pretty obvious who they should look up to. When they saw a minority in a game then they were usually bad guys. However on that rare occasion when they saw a powerful minority in a game it went a long way towards how the audiences saw themselves. Now imagine if each time a minority turned on a fighting game the black character only knew how to box or that the Mexican character only knew professional wrestling. What did they think of when White and Japanese characters could do everything? There were some truths and some untruths to the character designs in all fighting games, not just Street Fighter. The most idolized karate champions in history were Japanese and the pro wrestlers that wanted to learn the art of high flying were trained in Mexico. That was basic understanding of fight culture but the thing was that the culture was not set in stone. Like all cultures it was constantly changing. It turned out that there were many black kung-fu and karate champions. Some of the greatest masked wrestlers were Japanese and Brazilians shaped the history of ju-jitsu. But that was rarely, if ever, shown in games.

 

Blacks had been a major force in professional boxing for more than a century, this was true. But there had also been boxing champs from Latin American countries, from Eastern European countries, from Asia and Oceana. Those fighters were not often represented in games. Instead audiences were shown the extremes of one color. This decision was often made at the design stage because it was just easier to present one ethnicity with one fighting art. This pattern was repeated by every other studio. The rude and aggressive black fighter as well as the calm and gentlemanly black fighter had both been seen in Street Fighter. The comparisons between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson to Dudley and M. Bison were valid. But then there were the details that the developers and even audiences didn't completely catch. Dudley was patterned on people like Holyfield but also Joe Lewis, Jack Dempsy and UK boxing champ Lennox Lewis. Like many fighters in the series Dudley was painted as a heavy-handed stereotype of a nation. Lewis was always polite and cordial in his interviews but Dudley was on a completely different level. His butler would bring him tea in between rounds, he tended to a rose garden on his country estate and he drove vintage Jaguars in the game. Of course he did all of this while wearing boxing gloves which was absurd but made sense in the Street Fighter universe. After all, Ryu wore the same uniform everywhere he went, even when he was not fighting. This could certainly be argued as being a stereotype and it was. But like a cancer a stereotype could be benign or malignant. Dudley was benign.

When Capcom gave Dudley an alternate costume in Street Fighter IV it was modeled after the jacket, shirt and striped pants worn by Freddie Mercury during his famous Wembly Stadium concert. The legendary singer / songwriter from Queen was considered to be one of the greatest pop music voices ever. Freddie was synonymous with British culture. His fair skin and broad mustache made him appear like a true Cockney. The thing was that Freddie wasn't from England. Freddie was born Faroukh Bulsara in Zanzibar (Tanzania) and followed the ancient Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism. His heritage was a world away from Queen Elizabeth and the Church of England, yet his talents were embraced by an entire nation.

The Japanese admired the aristocracy, they admired refined culture and idealized the Victorian era. This was part of the reason why characters like Elena from Street Fighter III had to be educated in Paris and why the not-too-delicate Emilie "Lili" De Rochefort from Tekken was from France as well. Being a member of the rich elite were some of the reasons why Dudley was painted in such a positive light. The idealized images of England and Europe were sometimes met with heartbreak when Japanese visitors traveled abroad. For example when they discovered that France was nowhere near as soft and pastel as the Studio Ghibli films had them believe it caused a nervous breakdown for some known as Paris Syndrome. Japanese audiences had been fed a fable about Paris and England being the peak of refined society, it was too much to bear that they were as dirty and unkempt as any other major metropolis. If the Japanese could be wrong about European nobility then they could be wrong about punk culture.

 

Punks were not supposed to be upper class like Dudley and therefore punks were not supposed to be admired, this message was loud and clear from the designers at Capcom. But it also showed how little they knew about the culture. Punks were not fat and lazy slobs, those would be politicians. The reason punks looked and dressed a certain way was because they were counter-culture, they were trying to be seen and heard. They represented the masses that were disenfranchised with society, especially with politics and classicism. They were keenly aware of what was going on in society and despite the shocking haircuts and attire they could be well spoken and intelligent. Dudley was a member of the elite and while he did fight for and earn his championship he had the luxury of never having to fight in the first place. He was born into money and power and could have done anything he wanted. A punk did not have that freedom, they were often born into poverty and had to fight for everything they had. There was an interesting dynamic at work between British punk culture and the aristocracy. The majority identified with the Royal Family in England however kids, especially minorities, could identify more with the punks because nothing came easy for them. Everywhere a punk went they were stared at and judged. In media they were vilified and demonized. It was something that minorities had become used to.

Imagine a young minority playing Street Fighter and seeing Dudley presented in such a positive light. Someone that not only outfought but also outclassed the bully boxer. Imagine how important it was for a young Iranian to learn what a profound influence Freddie had on the world. They too could become anything that they wanted if they worked hard enough at it. It would help make them fans on a completely different level. Now imagine that a minority punk was turned into a fat slob. The message was clear, the aristocrat should be emulated, not the guy from the streets. Punks had no redeeming qualities, they were not cool at all according to Street Fighter V. Kids that identified with Birdie were pretty much fat shamed at that point. Sure Freddie Mercury could represent British culture but he was not the only musician to do so. Punks and "shock rockers" like Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols and the enigmatic David Bowie could have also fit the bill. Also unlike Mercury, the three aforementioned musicians were actually from England. Just imagine how different the series could be if the team treated Birdie with the same level of respect they had for Dudley.

Representation had been a part of the greatness of the designs in Street Fighter. Any fighting game could have men, women and minority characters. In fact many fighting games did have a tremendous amount of diversity. It was how that diversity was represented that was more important than the inclusion. The Tekken series for example had dozens of female characters from around the world. Yet these women were either young or played up sexually. They were poured from the same mold with only the costume and color of their skin making them different. It was a superficial change that was seen in many 2D and 3D fighting games. Juri and C. Viper from Street Fighter IV were very sexualized as well but they were also the two newest faces. They didn't necessarily represent the legacy designs. Look at how women had been portrayed in Street Fighter prior to 2008. Women could represent the major fighting arts. A karate master could be a man but could also be a girl. A kung-fu master could be a man but also a young woman.

 

The developers working on the newer Street Fighter games needed to re-evaluate the role of their characters before the first 3D model was even built. They needed to work harder on their designs and consider the ways that they were representing different cultures and different arts. I do not think that making a minority character the star of the next game would automatically make the series better. The game had always revolved around Ken and Ryu and that should never change. The way that the game presented minorities could be done with more consideration though. Consideration was something that stopped the team from putting Anabebe, the Great Tiger and Vodka Gobalsky in SF II. In their place were three iconic fighters that were not necessarily a slap in the face to the nationalities represented. When Turkish oil wrestling or yagli gures was put in Street Fighter IV the Turk was presented beet red with a blue dome haircut. Players had to constantly oil themselves up so they could slide across the floor and perform silly attacks. How was this representation of the culture and fighting art different than the Great Tiger? The designers were not able to make a Dhalsim-like change to Hakan before he debuted. When I saw T. Hawk sitting on opponents and going "How" when I saw El Fuerte making Quesadilla Bombs, when I saw Birdie stuffing his face with donuts and bananas I got a distinct feeling of disrespect. I saw the ugliness of stereotypes become malignant with those representations.

Did the developers in Japan simply have no confidence in creating a serious minority character? We saw how a powerful black fighter was turned into a fat white guy during the development of SF IV. It was as if the team could not wrap their collective heads around a black not being a boxer or a silly karateka. So they erased him from the lineup, took his costume away and gave it to Ken as an alternate uniform. Instead of creating Blanka out of Anabebe they went backwards. As a life-long fan of the series that decision would never settle with me. When I thought about what the team did to Birdie in SF V I could see shades of that same misrepresentation. The consideration that the team missed was seen on how different body types could be represented. The cancer had returned.

 

I had mentioned where fat body types had been done well as fighters and adventurers in other games. Fat characters used to represent strength, power and success in ancient stories. In modern fighting tournaments there were boxers, mixed martial artists and wrestlers that were both fat and successful. It was up to Capcom to think about their own legacy and where they wanted to go with it. At one point many years ago they were able to create fat characters that were powerful instead of goofy. At one point long ago they were able to present wrestlers and punks that were unique instead of jokes as well. Why did the team move away from those designs? Were they unaware of what they had done previously or did they choose to ignore it? When did sticking with classic designs become taboo at Capcom? Or did ignoring the rules only apply to minority characters? When popular fighting game YouTube commentator Maximillian Dood made a personal list of five people that should not return in Street Fighter V it consisted of Street Fighter IV characters Rufus (in the number 1 spot), Hakan, Seth, El Fuerte and Abel. Maximilian had his finger on the pulse of gamers and said what they were thinking. He knew that the designs, their control and place in the series were not as well done as the earlier fighters. Hopefully Capcom would listen to him if they wouldn't to me.

 

I "get" that Street Fighter was a series filled with fantastic characters that had impossible abilities. There were martial arts masters could kick with the force of a tornado or split boulders in half with a punch. They lived in a world where science fiction and fantasy were real. Yoga masters could float in the air, mad scientists could bring the dead back to life and beast men were real. This mix of different genres was refreshing. It was another reason why audiences kept coming back. On one side of the spectrum there were fighters that had realistic punches and kicks, they could have existed in this world. But on the extreme end there were fighters that could breathe fire and even "teleport" these things were improbable if not outright impossible.

In the extended Capcom universe there were characters every bit as fantastic and as well done as those in Street Fighter. Take the Indian wrestler Wraith from Muscle Bomber / Saturday Night Slam Masters. The game actually took place in Street Fighter continuity. The character from New Dheli was 7' 2", a certifiable giant. He was equally mysterious with pasty green skin and covered in a hood and rags. He moved erratically and seemed to be some sort of ghoul. He had long red nails that he would use to slash the throats of opponents. He also had sharp jagged teeth which he used to maul opponents like a rabid dog. Similar to Dhalsim he could even breath fire and had some sort of connection to the supernatural. One of his special attacks was absolutely bizarre. Snakes would burst from underneath his hood to bite opponents. It was a perfectly impossible attack that also made him memorable.

 

Here was the thing that made the Capcom fighting games unique when compared to every other studio. There was often a hidden truth, some basis in reality in the most memorable fighters and in their arts. It gave the character designs a bit more staying power in the genre. Ryu was inspired by the life and times of Mas Oyama and Yoshiji Soeno. Chun-Li was most likely inspired by Wing Chun and Bruce Lee. Ken Masters was most likely inspired by Joe Lewis and Bill "Superfoot" Wallace. We saw where Zangief came from, where even Dhalsim and Blanka originated from earlier in this blog. The special attacks also known as the "Fireball" moves had been written about in Chinese myth for years. Those attacks were called fa-jin and some kung fu masters claimed to be able to perform such moves to this day (granted they were invisible to the naked eye). Even the ShunGokuSatsu, or "Instant Hell Murder" of Gouki was based on the dim mak or death touch from Chinese legend.

A character as macabre as Wraith could never have existed in real life, or could he? Stop and think about it. A giant of a man, somebody with an undead gimmick that was impervious to harm and both frightened and delighted audiences. Yeah, I wonder where Tetsuo Hara could have based his design on…

 

We knew that Wraith was an absurd character but he did not have to be presented silly in order for us to get that. Part of the charm of professional wrestling is how gimmick performers try not to break character so that the audience can stay entertained. We all know that pro wrestling matches are pre-determined and the stories shown on television are scripted, yet the fans choose to believe that this is real combat and these are real characters. Masked wrestling is an even more absurd concept, I think we all get this, but it is also a great form of entertainment. But to take the masked wrestler out of context and turn him into a silly chef then you dismiss the entire culture. These changes were done because it was the quick fix to make the character "different." By the same token we know that beast men were not real. If they were then they would look like the Amazon or Blanka. As it stood Blanka was a ferocious monster in his original incarnation, he did not have to become dumber as the series progressed. Birdie already had a shocking appearance, the studio did not have to go out of their way to make him fat and gross. When I saw what the studio did to him in Street Fighter V I knew that they took the shortcut, they took the low road. They went for the quick laugh and used a minority to reach the punchline. When it comes to representation these things are important, young audiences can see a powerful minority in their game and be inspired, or they can see a silly character and be disheartened.  If you do not think there is an ethnic bias at play ask yourself this question, would Capcom make the main characters fat, gross or silly?

Capcom would probably not address any of the issues that I had brought up over the course of this series. After all they never responded to my other blogs. But I hope that my readers think about the importance of representation and challenge Capcom when something does not seem right for Street Fighter. I will always challenge the studio to try harder. To be better ambassadors to the world and stop thinking so insular about their designs. It would not hurt to revise, review and represent cultures with a modicum of dignity. If they could not introduce a minority character without giving them silly attacks or of stereotypical appearances then maybe they should not be in the game. My hope is that they get rid of the nonsense and bring back the real Birdie and look at how they are representing minority characters. Thank you for reading and I hope you share your thoughts with Capcom! As always if you enjoyed this blog and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Representation Matters! Or, what happened to Birdie, part 4...

 

The characters in fighting games are rarely based on mythological figures. Instead they are based on real fighters, comic book characters or actors. Fat martial artists are few and far between. The most popular and longest-lived template for fat fighters is Sammo Hung. The writer, director and actor from Hong Kong broke into cinema at a young age. His talents behind the camera are nothing compared to his knowledge and experience in the martial arts. He was trained as a child in the Chinese Drama Academy, where performers learned what it took to appear in the Chinese Opera. He learned various forms of kung-fu as well as tumbling and working with weapons. The lessons were brutally difficult, children were made to do handstands and splits for hours on end, they would be disciplined with caning for being disobedient. Many would consider the training to be nothing short of child abuse. Sammo made it through and became an exceptional performer and choreographer. He was developed alongside people like Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao, whom also became martial arts superstars. There was a dramatized retelling of what they had gone through in the film Painted Faces. Sammo actually played an instructor in the film and said many things that happened to him growing up were much harsher than what the film depicted.

 

The first fighting game to feature a character modeled after Sammo was Fatal Fury 2 in 1992. Cheng Sinzan was a businessman and expert martial artist. He was fast, as Sammo was, had an assortment of great kung-fu attacks but was always played up to be slightly funny. Sammo was known for his comedic timing. As great as he was in a fighting scene he always found a way to get in a visual gag, usually at the expense of his weight. It was no different for Cheng. He sweated profusely and could be seen wiping his forehead with a handkerchief in between rounds. Cheng got fatter when he turned up again as a non-playable cameo in Fatal Fury 3 and then as a playable character in Real Bout Special. Each time he came back he was fatter than the last time.

The same trend happened to other fat characters in fighting games. They became extraordinarily large, more so than average people. Sammo was always what we would consider "chubby" but he was nowhere near as fat as the in game versions of Cheng were. This was something that character designers and animators learned to do as the genre evolved. It did not matter what form of fighting that a character practiced. They had to have very exaggerated proportions. This was something that worked well in comic books and manga. Gamers would be less likely to watch two average-looking people in a fight, on television or in the comics. If instead the karate guy had torn sleeves to show off bodybuilder-like biceps and the female kung-fu expert had a short dress to show off her long shapely legs then it would be much more appealing.

 

By the same process the fat characters could not be slightly overweight in games or comics, the had to be morbidly obese. Cheng was only the tip of the iceberg. As other studios got into the genre they began pushing the envelope on what was possible. Those with muscles became extraordinarily swollen, female characters became bustier, and fat characters became almost perfectly round. Such was the case with Jae-Mo Kang, the Korean pro wrestler from the 2002 game Rage of Dragons. The game was set in an anime-like version of the Double Dragon universe. The developers at Evoga avoided the continuity from the previous Double Dragon fighting game. Kang was strong but not meant to be taken as seriously as Burnov.

Fat characters were beginning to find their stride through the late '90s and into the '00s and they were supposed to be funny. Any great elements that Sammo had given his roles, anything he meant to the martial arts was completely lost. Heaven help the player if they actually liked or even identified with the fat characters. They were not meant to be seen as stars of the games. In 1994 SNK launched the King of Fighters series. It would become the longest-lived and most popular tag team fighting franchise. The Taekwondo star of the game, Kim Kaphwan needed two partners to round out the Korean team. The designs given to his partners were lackluster. One was a short criminal, Choi Bounge, with claw gloves and a fedora. He looked like a tiny Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. The other was a tall but obese criminal named Chang Koehan. Kim was trying to rehabilitate the pair. Chang was oafish, swinging and enormous ball and chain at his opponents. He lacked appeal and would appear on and off with the team.

 

Taking a page from the Cheng Sinzan school of funny fatties was Wang Koh-San. The chubby character was introduced in the Art of Fighting 3. The character was a cartoonist that was in the tournament. He seemed outfitted for a long time on the road with all sorts of camping gear attached to his backpack. In the sack there was a pelican that would pop up from time to time. Not only was the character fat and funny but he even had a wacky bird sidekick. If this was a Hanna Barbera cartoon from the '70s then it would have been a hit. In fighting games players were just left scratching their heads.

SNK had started a tradition of having morbidly obese people serve as comic relief as far back as 1993. Earthquake in the game Samurai Spirits / Showdown was an American ninja. He was massive, at the time being one of the largest sprites ever created for a fighting game. The character took up almost a third of the screen. He was fat and gross too. Farting on opponents and eating turkey legs that he kept stashed away in his belt. Yet despite these things he was a very fresh design. He had tattoos, and face paint, he was colorful and brought attention to himself. This was the opposite of what most people thought of when they heard that he was a ninja. Despite his size he was able to move quickly, disappear in a puff of smoke and fight with some unique attacks. Earthquake was meant to represent greed, he wanted everything in excess and was looking for the fastest way to get rich, which was why he was so big and fat. He was actually balanced out by another American ninja named Galford. Galford had stayed on the true path set by his masters and was therefor young and handsome. Despite his gross aspects there was not another obese character that was as memorable as Earthquake.

In 1991 Fatal Fury debuted. Created by the planner behind the original Street Fighter it was a new take on the genre. Players could jump between the foreground and background and even team up against opponents. One of the villains (that later became a hero) was a pro wrestler called Raiden. This character was large and heavy-set. But he also had some high flying maneuvers despite his size. He was never as fat as any other character in the SNK universe but always carried around a gut. He was actually modeled after pro wrestler Leon "Big Van Vader" White. Tetsuo Hara used Vader as the basis for Sheep the Royal in Muscle Bomber. Vader came on the heels of Abdullah the Butcher but because he was a bit more athletic he suck around for some more high profile rivalries in promotions. Vader was a huge American wrestler that found a great deal of fame in Japan. He had crazy matches against the biggest bruisers of the era including one against Stan Hansen where he had his eye poked out of its socket. Vader also carried around a belly but was backed up by some big muscles as well. Huge wrestlers like Vader, Abdullah and host of others greatly influenced the development of characters in wrestling games, brawlers and fighting titles. SNK did a good job of experimenting with fat body types in many of their games but tended to side as the fat as funny stereotype. 

Other studios followed the trend and would only pull out the fat character if they could get a joke out of it. This reality came to a head in 2006 with the release of Tekken 6. The Tekken series was one of the fighting games that actually kept pace with the Street Fighter in terms of sales and popularity. It set itself apart from the other titles because it was one of the first 3D fighting games. The designers of that series and head producer Katsuhiro Harada had introduced dozens of characters into continuity. Many were from around the world and there was even a diverse mix of female characters as well. The game had always combined the fantastic as well as science fiction, cyborgs, mutants angels and demons were all within canon. The reality it was based in was only loosely grounded and this was the understanding that audiences were expected to accept when Bob was put in the game. Bob was a great fighter but he felt that it took too much effort to defeat opponents. He decided that he could do better in tournaments if he had some extra weight behind his punches and kicks. He bulked up and became about three times as heavy as he used to be.

 

It was strange watching Bob in the game, not because of his size but because how fast he moved. Despite his girth the character was blindingly fast. But that speed also made him look weightless. The graphics engine was very powerful. It was capable of rendering flowing hair, accurate shadows and reflections as well as clothes that bunched and folded realistically. It even put a little bit of jiggle in Bob's belly fat. The illusion of a three-dimensional figure was broken each time he attacked. Bob was so fast that he simply appeared unrealistic.

Yoshinori Ono must have had a strong reaction to Bob because a few years later he announced a new character to debut in Street Fighter IV. Many game players were hoping for something as unique and memorable as the figures in Street Fighter EX, Street Fighter Zero and Street Fighter III. The new character was memorable but for all the wrong reasons. Rufus took a page from Bob and the developers went even faster with his moves and attacks. His gigantic belly would sway underneath his jumpsuit. Both Harada and Ono had put a fat character in the game because it was funny. They did not mean to be more inclusive of different body types. I mean could you imagine how absurd it would be to see a serious fat person in a game? Fat people were not heroes, they were social outcasts. It was obvious in public and reinforced in media.

Makeup artists had been making people appear fat since the days of black and white movies. But when newer techniques allowed them to create lightweight "fat suits" then Hollywood began looking for ways to exploit the technology. Comedians Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence used fat suits in films to lampoon fat stereotypes respectively in the Nutty Professor and in Big Mama's House. Mike Meyers had a recurring character called Fat Bastard from the 1999 film Austin Powers: the Spy Who Shagged Me. The hit man had an unmistakable presence and was meant to be gross and disgusting. But as audiences discovered there was an underlying sadness to the character this gave him much more dimension than simply writing gag after gag on how fat he was. In his final appearance Fat Bastard had lost his weight and had become much happier with himself.

A similar lesson lesson on sympathy and understanding was learned in the Farrelly Bros. Comedy Shallow Hal from 2001. Gwyneth Paltrow played Rosemary Shanahan and she couldn't find a person to accept her for who she was. Jack Black played Hal Larson, a womanizer who gets hypnotized by life coach Tony Robbins into seeing the inner beauty of people instead of the physical ideals of beauty. Hal realizes that Rosemary is the person he'd been looking for all his life. Both films were comedies and both relied on fat as the punchline to many jokes. Characters like Bob and Rufus appeared later and were simply reinforcing that stereotype.

Bob actually had a physical transformation over the years. He lost his weight and by 2012 was back down to his original size. Of course the Tekken team could not allow the character to be quite happy with whatever size he was. Since he had lost the weight it required more effort for him to win battles. He was left tired more often and wondered if his weight loss was worth it. Fat people couldn't catch a break even when they were no longer fat.

What really irks me about the direction of Street Fighter IV and V were how fat was being used as a punchline as well. It was cheap, it was demeaning and it took away from the elements that made all of the other characters great. I've mentioned it before but it bears repeating now more than ever. The designers on Street Fighter IV and V are putting a priority of visual gimmicks and pandering to stereotype rather than great character designs. We could start with Rufus and work backwards. In doing so we could spot a trend. That trend sadly leans towards racial bias and I would even say racial exclusion from Street Fighter.

Many people that read my blogs know that the fat white Rufus was not the original choice as a new character in Street Fighter IV. Instead he was going to be a young black man named King Cobra / Black Cobra. The character was in pretty much the final stages when Yoshinori Ono went in a radically different direction and pushed the team to put a "fatty" in the game. All of the great elements of Cobra were gone and in his place there was a tub of jelly that was insanely fast and had moves perfect to counter most every other character in the series. We can actually work backwards and see who Rufus was based on and how radically different he was in the early stages.

 

Rufus was meant to be the ultimate rival to Ken. The team realized that Ryu had a great rival with Sagat but after 20 years there was not somebody for Ken. The designers wanted players to see a character that was both physically imposing and could be a genuine threat to Ken. They knew this character had to be bigger-than-life, just like Sagat. They also considered making him a minority similar to Sagat. In the planning stages Rufus was a tall, heavy set black man with subtle gangster features. He had high top sneakers, a thick gold chain and pointy dreads. The fat gimmick got more and more pronounced the closer he came to Yoshinori's vision of a fatty. But if you go back far enough you can actually find a character that met the original plan and wasn't fat or silly at all.

The first thing that made rivalry between Ryu and Sagat important was the size difference between the two characters. Ryu was almost six-feet tall but Sagat was about a foot and a half taller. King Cobra would have been at least as tall if not taller. The earliest version of this figure was tall and lanky. He actually looked like Kareem Abdul Jabbar, the basketball player and friend of Bruce Lee. Kareem played the final opponent in Lee's last film the Game of Death. The second thing that made the classic rivalry important was the techniques that each fighter possessed. Ryu studied karate which was considered a very refined form of self defense and required tremendous self discipline to master. Sagat studied Muay That which was an older system that was designed to hurt, maim and kill opponents. It was an art that required people to be very aggressive and tough. The two styles clashed against each other perfectly. Ken's opponent would have been a tall black man that was a master of a certain form of karate. Perhaps having two forms of karate was a bad choice and the designers began looking elsewhere.

 

A few of the early US martial arts stars and tournament champions were black. Ron Van Clief, master of karate and several forms of kung-fu was nicknamed "The Black Dragon" and karate champion Jim Kelly starred as the Black Samurai. They were both martial arts pioneers and friends of Bruce Lee. They were well versed in various forms of fighting and this was apparent when they performed on film. What was terrible for the duo was that they could find work in Hong Kong cinema yet be denied many opportunities in the USA. If they performed in a US film they were usually the "Blacksploitation" kind. The two overcame many hardships because of the color of their skin. Things were especially hard for Van Clief. When he joined the Army and was sent to the South to train he was lynched by his fellow enlistees. He barely survived the attack and had to deal with racism both in and out of uniform. Racism was very strong in many parts of the country and that animosity exists to this day.

When I think of a missed opportunity to put in a powerful black karate fighter I think about how blacks had become caricatured in the genre. Just as everything great about Sammo Hung had been stripped away when creating fat characters in the genre. The only thing that Japanese studios seemed to remember from the early black martial arts appearances were the afro and sideburns worn by Clief and Kelly. The developers had reduced black fighters to a trope. It was seen with Tiger Jackson from Tekken, and Mr. Jones from Rage of Dragons. The black fighters in modern games still wore afros, sunglasses and bell bottom pants as if they were perpetually locked in the '70s.

Another questionable approach to the design and purpose of Rufus was how stupid he was. In canon Rufus was incredibly dumb, taking an obvious jab at the Fat Dumb American stereotype. He was so dumb that he could not even identify Ken if they crossed paths, which they did several times. I mean how great it is to have an arch-rival for Ken that is too stupid to spot him in the same room? It's genius planning I tell you! I doubt and sincerely hope that the black rival would not have been presented as stupid.

Imagine what would have happened to Sagat if he couldn't remember what Ryu looked like. His purpose in the series and reputation would have been greatly diminished. Karate could have very well been assigned to Cobra and it could have been a form unique to the Street Fighter universe. But seeing as how the Japanese developers didn't really know much about black fighters then they made things up. In the design notes Cobra actually used "Breakdance Kung-Fu." It seemed as if the Japanese developers could never take blacks seriously as being masters of karate.

Miscasting a minority was nothing new to Japanese developers. Characters like Sean from Street Fighter III and Marco Rodriqguez from Garou: Mark of the Wolves, while popular, were not meant to be taken seriously. They were not supposed to be stars of the games. Instead they were supposed to be overzealous proponents of the fighting art. They were too enthusiastic for their own good and that lesson was seen in their respective endings. Sean would never become as great as Ken. Marco would never become as great as Ryo Sakazaki. Their roles were subservient, it's quite possible that the designers never thought about the statement they were making through these characters.

The thing about history was that blacks were an important part of the evolution of karate. Karate champions Willie Williams, Jamie Oliver and Charles Martin were the subject of the documentary The Fighting Black Kings, set during the 1st Kyokushin (the form founded by Mas Oyama) World Karate Championship. They were the basis for Marco but they were not the only black fighters that influenced the Japanese designers. But I am getting a bit off of the subject. Fat characters were put into fighting games because they were funny to look at. When presented with a choice as to put a strong black character in Street Fighter or put a fatty in Street Fighter the director chose the latter. This is what drives me insane about the people that worked on Street Fighter IV and the people working on Street Fighter V. Each time they make a design choice for a new character it always seems to be the wrong one. It always seems to degrade the character if not devalue the art being depicted. This was a problem that went all the way back to Street Fighter II, however Capcom was able to overcome some potentially disastrous choices. We will look at these things in the next blog. As always if you enjoyed this blog and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!