The Mystery of Rashid’s Scouter

Rashid is the Middle Eastern socialite who was searching for his friend after she was forced to work for Shadaloo to buid the Black Moons. After the Cinematic Story Mode was introduced, we found out that Rashid was a good-hearted person who would do anything for his friends, that he has a great relationship with hs butler Azam, and that his friend was killed by F.A.N.G. out of retaliation for trying to stop the Black Moons from fulfilling their purpose. In fact, we’re told so much about Rashid that it feels like we’ve known him forever. Also, that theme…: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6HWQW2R-EE

There is one mystery that hasn’t been solved yet, however, and it’s one of Rashid’s most prominent design features: his scouter. It was never revealed in-game what the scouter actually does, and seems to serve almost no purpose except as a cool aesthetic by the character designer. However, after looking at what evidence is available, I was able to draw a conclusion as to what it actually does.

We have to start by looking at Rashid’s overall design.

What Rashid is wearing, besides the eyepiece, gives us an idea of Rashid’s background. He’s wearing Middle Eastern military-style clothing, particularly the pants and boots, and has a very high tech military-style backpack. This tells us that Rashid has either served in the military or has an interest in military tech, and as a result of this minor design choice, we can conclude that the scouter is specifically tailored for combat situations.

In fact, Rashid’s gear is very similar to the paraphenilia the United States uses in actual combat. This is the Land Warrior Integrated Soldier System.

Land Warrior Integrated Soldier System

While there’s a lot of gear in the system, what we’re interested in is the helmet. Take a look at this excerpt from the website:

“The Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) antenna is installed in the helmet and connects via the hub to the MBITR radio carried in the soldier’s fighting load vest. The range of the radio is 1km within line-of-sight.

The helmet carries a Head-Mounted Display (HMD), which is positioned over the soldier’s dominant eye and provides command and control information and situational awareness.

The display shows the video from the daylight video scope or the infrared thermal weapon scope mounted on the soldier’s weapon. It also shows satellite and topographical maps with friendly positions, updated every 30 seconds.

The soldier can switch screens using the select button on the stock of the rifle. The helmet-mounted display is used for zeroing the daylight video scope, capturing battlefield images and for sending and receiving data.”

Looking over the passage, there’s a few things we can eliminate. First, Rashid doesn’t have a radio or communications device built into the scouter. He doesn’t need it. He carries a smartphone and a laptop around in order to communicate with people. Second, he doesn’t have or use a weapon. Everything else, however, is fair game.

The HMD shows useful information to the soldier, particularly satellite and topographical maps as well as information from the video scope/infrared camera that is on their weapon (which, again, Rashid does not have). In essence, the HMD is a guidance system, and allows the soldier wearing it to know where they are at all times.

So, is Rashid’s scouter a guidance device? The answer is yes, and there’s one very specific detail in Rashid’s design (that you saw but never realized was important) that proves this: the antenna he wears on his shemagh and agal.

The Land Warrior antenna has a range of one kilometer, and it’s safe to say that, based on its size, the antenna that Rashid uses has a similar range. The antenna can bring in satellite imagery within one kilometer of where he is. So, the second question is,”Why would he need it?”

Throughout cinematic story mode, Rashid’s scouter almost never appears to activate except when he’s fighting. When he is fighting, there are two times we can see it light up: during his intro and when he activates Altair, his Critical Art. Both times Rashid is on the move. He is doing some parkour moves in his intro and he literally flies in the air during his critical art. Basically, the guidance system that he wears is meant to prevent him from becoming disoriented. It’s likely that Rashid is doing parkour moves not just to show off but to slow his momentum from flying to the destination of his fight. It’s shown in Cinematic Story Mode that Rashid doesn’t just fly in battle – he can fly long distances outside of it, too. https://youtu.be/P6KKsSAbbaM?t=1641

Since Rashid can manipulate wind strong enough to fly, it would be very useful to have a device on him at all times that would allow him to keep track of where he’s going and land in a soft spot when he’s reached where he needs to go. While he could use his phone or laptop, he runs the risk of accidentally destroying them due to the fact that he’s not only flying but is surrounded by very strong winds when he does. He would not be able to hold on to his equipment. This also explains why Rashid needs to wear his high tech backpack at all times: it protects his stuff from the high winds he can generate.

There was some talk on the internet about his equipment being the reason why he can fly, but this is disproved by Rashid’s story costume – he can still use wind without the electronics. The story costume is far more casual than Rashid’s default costume as well – if he’s wearing it, he’s not planning on taking a long journey so he doesn’t need all the gear.

Finally, Rashid wasn’t the first character to utilize a tornado in his special. That honor actually belongs to Rufus from Street Fighter IV. This is his Big Bang Typhoon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiLOdKo8J2k

If you look carefully, you’ll see that Rufus’s head is sticking out from the tornado he’s generating. There’s a reason – he needs to see where he is so he can continue the battle once his attack is over. It would be an extreme disadvantage in a fight to be disoriented and not know where your opponent is after you’ve finished a move.

This is the same for Rashid. The scouter tells him where the opponent is when he’s spinning. Granted, he doesn’t need the scouter, as he can still fight without it judging by his story costume. However, it’s such a part of him that when his friend implemented the secret command code to shut down the Black Moons, she designed his sprite with the scouter as well.