G, Q, and Necalli – Connections and Symbolism

(Done with assistance from @tintecinabrio; for more information on Mexica culture, please reach out to him)

In doing my research on Necalli, I ran across some information that I was unable to use in my recent theory. The information is also too fragmented to establish another theory with. However, this information is nonetheless pertinent to understanding the design choices Capcom has made for G, Q, and Necalli, and the information that has been discovered makes for an interesting possible connection between all three of those characters. A lot of the information I have found can be researched online on Wikipedia, so outside of a few links that were provided to me by Twitter user @tintecinabrio, I won’t be linking to very many outside sources. However, I will explain the connections and how they apply to each of the characters.

Starting out with Necalli, one of the big mysteries is the opening segment of the Cinematic Story Mode, where Necalli takes the form of a sheep in order to consume Nash’s soul. In China, the sheep is a symbol of luck, and both the words sheep and luck happen to use the same kanji. This was Necalli’s message to Nash: your luck has run out. The butterfly that rescued him is also a symbol of luck, proving that it hadn’t (thanks, Itzpapalotl!) Also, in Aztec culture, there was a period of time every year with a basis on luck. The Aztec year was 360 days long, leaving an extra five days every year that the Aztecs considered “unlucky”. This was Nemontemi, and as little activity as possible was done during this period of time; even cooking was avoided.

Remaining within Aztec mythology, there was a god named Huehuecoyotl, was similar to Coyote in Native American legend as he was known as a trickster god, being a god of mischief and dance, as well as being symbolic of male sexuality, indulgence, good luck, and story-telling. G’s potential of being a trickster character and his strange narratives make him somewhat of an expy of Huehuecoyotl, but a couple of other things stand out. One, Huehuecoyotl’s name literally translates to very old coyote, and G appears to be an old man. However, there’s one other very strange connection. G has a fondness of bedrock baths, which is basically a rock sauna that’s very popular in Japan. One of the god’s wives, Temazcalteci, was the goddess of steam baths, and since a temazcal is a place for someone like G to get sauna, there’s a weird lore connection there as well.

Now is as good a time as any to introduce one of Tintecinabrio’s pieces of information. There is a god of fire, volcanoes, and time in Mexica culture named Xiuhtecuhtli, who is also known in some places as Huehueteotl. Aside from the obvious name similarity to the Aztec trickster god, there was something else Tintecinabrio brought to my attention. This: https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=667486&partId=1&images=true

This mask is said to represent Xiuhtechutli, but if you look very carefully, you’ll notice the mosaic pattern. This is what Necalli’s story costume was based off of.

As Tintecinabrio told me, Huehueteotl is also the “deity that is celebrated in the last month of the Mexica calendar, as a ritual of old permitting the new to enter.” G is wanting a radical new idea: to unify the world by returning it to Pangaea again, a single unified continent and becoming its ultimate leader, and his ideas run parallel to this ritual. His methods as of yet are unknown, but with the obvious connection to Q, who only appears during natural disasters, it can be stated that the method is likely a physical manipulation of the Earth itself.

Tintecinabrio also found something in his research to reflect this, which you can find here: https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=Ytra43jFSJIC&pg=PA34&dq=fifth+sun+earthquake+sun&hl=es&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1z8LG-9XeAhX9HTQIHa5JDycQ6AEISDAE#v=onepage&q=fifth%20sun%20earthquake%20sun&f=false

According to Aztec culture, there were four rebirths of the world, each one defined under an order of “suns”, and the present era is under the fifth of these suns. The fifth of these suns is called “Nahui-Ollin”, which translates to “Earthquake Sun”. In other words, the end of this era of the world would be brought about by earthquakes, and according to Tintecinabrio, G’s Earth-based powers would be fully capable of this.

Tintecinabrio also pointed out the letters G and P are also related in more obscure terms. He points out a few interesting facts, such as Abraham Lincoln being our 16th president and P being the 16th letter of the alphabet. However, as insignificant as these would first appear, the letters G and P are part of G’s motif. For example, he is “P”resident “G” who seeks to create “P”an“g”aea. More so, in the geological time scale, PG is also the abbreviation of Paleogene, which was the first period of the Cenozoic era, or the Era of Man; before that was the Cretaceous period, the era of the dinosaurs, and in-between the Cretaceous and Paleogene eras was the K-Pg extinction event, which today is mostly believed to have been caused by an asteroid impact. Lastly, Tintecinabrio points out that the letter Q is the abbreviation for Quaternary, the era on the geological time scale we live in now.

Taking all of this into consideration, G may be trying to literally reform the earth into Pangaea with earthquakes, causing a mass extinction event. The survivors would be turned into Q’s, all of whom would be part of a new era under G’s leadership. (Not bad, Tintecinabrio.)

There was one more thing Tintecinabrio found: a reference that Huehueteotl/Xiuhtecuhtli takes the form of a young person for using a mask, and in G’s Story Costume, he wears a mask and objectively looks younger.

As for me, there are a couple of things I need to point out. First of all, Q also ties, by name, into Aztec culture through the god Quetzalcoatl. In one of the myths, Quetzalcoatl is the brother of both Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlicopa, the latter of whom also connects back to Huehuecoyotl who is part of the same family. So we have the connections of Necalli being Huitzilopochtli, G being Huehuecoyotl, and Q being Quetzalcoatl. In other words, they may all just be family. The last thing to point out ties back into my original theory. In Aztec culture, dogs are associated with death, and whose form is canine in appearance? Glasya-Labolas.

There is a lot of symbolism to sift through, and Capcom could have used all, some, or none of the things that have been addressed here in the designs of their characters. However, this doesn’t mean that we can’t point out similarities in myths and stories that may, coincidentally or otherwise, be relevant to the lore of Street Fighter.

The reason I started creating these theories was two-fold. First, I noticed that there were a lot of video game theories being discussed, but Street Fighter was almost never covered. I’m a huge fan of Game Theory, but outside of a few brief mentions, MatPat only covered the game once, and I’ve been trying to get his attention since my very first game speculation on Karin and Ingrid being the same person. I want him to create another Street Fighter theory, and if he uses one of mine as a basis for it, great! The only thing I ask for is credit and some of the same followers he has

The second reason I made these was because of the gigantic lore behind it, which has gone virtually untapped for years. I want people to recognize that Street Fighter, with 30 years worth of stories behind it, is just as deep as Undertale, Final Fantasy, or Five Nights at Freddy’s, if not moreso. Underneath its simple premise of two characters beating each other up lies its true heart: a deep, interconnected web of tales that all converge at the World Warrior tournament. Each character has a reason for being there, and no two stories are the same. It’s important to discuss these tales freely and to bring to light the hidden mysteries that lie within the game. I’m sure Tintecinabrio feels the same.
What mysteries within Street Fighter’s lore do you have questions about? Feel free to discuss them with me or your own circle of friends. Research the symbols and come up with your own conclusions.

I’d love to hear what you find.