As we in the real world must survive a global virus that threatens our way of life, a similar pandemic exists in the world of Street Fighter – G’s ability to manipulate people on a world scale. Using everything from social media to person-to-person contact, G has the ability to infect and affect everyone he touches with his powers. I’ve stated many times before on his potential ability to control with the touch of his hand, and to have those he touches be able to pass on his influence in the same way. Essentially, G is Street Fighter’s version of COVID-19, the coronavirus.
G’s influence on each individual character brings a lot of questions to the forefront, but the one that is asked over and over again lies at the heart of his character: what is his connection to Q? Does he become Q? Does he control Q? Do they even have a connection at all? Capcom has been silent about the two characters, letting the fans speculate about who they are and what they’ll eventually bring to the table. I’ve already offered up many theories on the two characters, all with one underlying idea: G is a villain who wants to control and terraform the world into the image he wants. I do believe that G’s mission is to unify the world under a hive mind, and eventually most of the characters will fall victim to his influence.
Since Q was created well before G was, though, we can say that Street Fighter has been a game of “Guess Who?” for 20 years. We know nothing about the man in the mask, and G’s presence gives only slight clues to Q’s identity. It could very well be that Q is a depowered G, but existing evidence seems to contradict the idea. The clues I’ve found lead me to believe that Q is controlled by G, and more importantly, that Q is not the only Q in the series.
In fact, if you go back and read everything I’ve done on G and Q so far, there are multiple candidates who could be the Q we all know and speculate about (Dorai, Nash, Seth) and even more who could become a Q (Ed, Falke, Cody, Lucia, Ken, Sakura). However, there seems to be one character in particular who has stood out as I’ve been writing these theories, and a character I have run into over and over again in my research. This character is a character I have never talked about until now, and who has more than a few odd connections in their design to both G and Q.
In fact, it’s very possible that, while perhaps not the Q we see in Street Fighter III, this character was the first Q. A Patient Zero, if you will.
This character shares a lot of traits with Q, especially in gameplay: a slow walk and stiff gait, an ability to stretch their arms to an extent, and a super move that allows them both to explode. Also like Q, this character was in a fighting game that didn’t sell particularly well its first time out, but like Street Fighter III, it became something of a cult hit (but unlike III, this game remains somewhat obscure). I’ve also covered this game once before, in my Zeku theory. The game is Final Fight: Revenge. https://manestreet.home.blog/2019/03/29/zekus-purpose/
The character is someone that retro gamers will be very familiar with. He was a villain, the leader of Mad Gear, and the final boss of Final Fight.
It’s Belger.
The zombified version of Belger shares the same gait and stance as Q, can stretch his limbs like Dhalsim, and can explode much like Q can. You can see this for yourself in the followng videos:
Belger’s moves in Final Fight: Revenge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJJWT5_CQIo
Q’s moves in Street Fighter III: Third Strike: https://youtu.be/VFE8xZonK68
(If you’re looking for the parts where they explode, check out the Belger video at 1:40 and the Q video at 3:01.)
You’ll be able to find some other similarities as well. I’ve found a couple which I won’t spoil here, but if you can find them or any others, you can find me on Twitter at @StevenManeVox.
Something else that I found during my research was a game that was released on the NES called Mighty Final Fight. It was a beat-’em-up similar to River City Ransom right down to the art style, using Final Fight characters in a super-deformed environment. You face Belger as the final boss in this game as well, but with one striking similarity: Belger is a cyborg.
Although it still hasn’t been stated what Q is, since Q does seem to be part machine, it can be assumed that Q is a cyborg as well.
Of course, the similarities are very interesting, but they’re only one part of this theory. There was something else I found very interesting. Take a look at Abigail’s ending.
Belger makes an appearance in the ending wanting, among other things, a new chair, weapons, and what appears to be some sort of hot dog on top of a lettuce leaf. It isn’t the stuff he’s ordering you need to pay attention to though. Look at Belger. Does something seem familiar about him?
The idea that G and Belger are mimicking each other may just be a huge clue to finding out who G is. It may very well be that G and Belger are the same person. There are some differences: they have different-colored hair, G has more hair on top of his head, G’s physique is far more toned than Belger’s, etc. However, they have quite a few similarities as well: same type of facial hair, same taste in clothing, and the ability to draw people to their cause. There is one feature that they share, though, which is very easy to be overlooked, but is the most telling feature of all: the scars on their left eyes. Look at Belger’s official SFV art, then look at G’s.
It almost appears that the gold on G’s eye is a way to cover up the scar. In fact, one of G’s original designs was that the continents on his body were scars. This idea made its way into Gill’s Story Mode when Gill and G encountered each other.
So, if Belger is G, what’s going on here? Well, this ties into the idea that G and Q are the same person. If this is true, and because Belger has so many similarities with them, we can conclude that G, Q, and Belger are all the same person.
How? Well, there’s a few things we need to work out here, primarily when did Belger die in the Street Fighter timeline, if he died at all? Belger is dead in Final Fight: Revenge, which takes place immediately after the events of the Final Fight series. However, Belger is seen alive and well in the Mad Gear Hideout in Street Fighter IV. If Final Fight: Revenge is canon, how does this work? Simple: Q is Belger revived and on life support.
Here’s how the timeline would go:
1) Belger dies by Cody’s hand in the Final Fight series.
2) Belger becomes a zombie in Final Fight: Revenge. It isn’t stated how he becomes a zombie, but we can assume that by the power he acquires that he was resurrected by the same force that gives G his powers. More on this in a little bit.
3) Zombie Belger is deemed too fragile by the force that revived him, and is refashioned as a cyborg in Mighty Final Fight.
4) After losing again, the same force refashions Belger into Q, and forces him to wander the world to study martial artists.
5) Belger, as Q, appears in Ken’s Street Fighter II stage.
6) Belger recovers enough of his abilities to take off the Q mask and appear in the Mad Gear’s Hideout in Street Fighter IV. He can remove the Q mask when he wants, but he can’t keep it off for too long as he hasn’t fully healed from dying.
7) Belger, as Q, appears in Street Fighter III.
8) If Belger appeared as Q in Street Fighter III, this would mean that the events in G’s Story Mode in Street Fighter V would have to have taken place after the events of both Street Fighter III and V. The powers that manifested when Belger was a zombie have become more focused now. He can control his combustion, turning it into fire and magma, and through this has the ability to absorb energy from the earth.
9) Studying all of the martial artists around the world and practicing them himself has given the once very lazy and out of shape Belger, who used a rocket chair, a far more toned body (although he still likes the rocket chair).
10) Belger uses a new identity, G, President of the Earth, to lure people around the world into a revived Mad Gear.
This last part is somewhat revealed in Lucia’s Story Mode. Haggar makes an appearance, telling Lucia that Mad Gear, having put a damper on Cody’s inauguration, may be reforming to take him down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmklmW59bEc
It would make sense that Belger would want to reform Mad Gear and take revenge on Cody, having been beaten by him twice. He would recruit many people around the world, his followers wearing Q masks to show their allegiance to him, and Belger as G would do everything to use his newly found powers to control the world. Since he would be in disguise as G, no one, not his enemies or former associates, would even recognize him, and it allows Belger to be more covert.
This leads to the last questions that need to be asked: how was Belger revived and how did he get G’s powers in the first place? Those answers… are unclear. I haven’t been able to figure this out yet, but it could be Bison, it could be Ingrid, or it could be someone else entirely. Whoever they are, they would prove to be a threat to society.
One even worse than Street Fighter’s version of the coronavirus.
Street Fighter Game Lore Theories 