The Question of G

The theory that launched my entire brand was “The Truth About G and Q?” It was covered by Event Hubs and Combo Infinito. I interviewed Daniel Lindholm, G’s composer, on creating G’s Theme, one of the best pieces of music on the Street Fighter V soundtrack. I’ve developed theory after theory on G and Q, G’s relationships to other characters, G’s plans for the world, and even G’s links to the legendary musician Dr. John. However, there is one question that I seem to answer over and over:

Who is G?

It’s a question that still hasn’t been resolved. It’s been close to three years, and the mysteries around G only seem to deepen with time. The more we find out about him, the less we know about the character. Capcom is utilizing G to perfection, giving the character a real-life cult of personality that emulates the following he receives in the game. G is the deepest fighting game character Capcom has ever created, if not the deepest character they’ve ever made.The rabbit hole that Capcom has opened ensures that the story of Street Fighter will keep the interest of gamers for a long time to come.

That being said, the point of this blog is to figure out those mysteries and predict where the story is going. It isn’t easy work, and figuring out G is a daunting task that no one else has even attempted to take on. The average gamer goes, “G is Q, maybe,” and then they go on their way, without any further interest in the character or where Capcom is going with it. This is doing a complete disservice to both the developer, who’ve spent YEARS on the character, and the casual fan.

Maybe, though, we’re asking the wrong question. We shouldn’t be asking “Who is G?” so much as we should be asking “What is G?”

I’ve tried to answer the question of who G is for some time. I’ve come up with several possibilities, including that:

• He’s the demon Glasya-Labolas.
• He’s an enhanced Belger.
• He’s Getepe.
• He’s Baron Samedi.

I’ve even attempted to identify the powers G has. I’ve said that:

• He’s an energy vampire.
• He’s a mind and body controller.
• He’s a master of both life and death.

Now, with Rose’s story, we can perhaps finally answer the question I haven’t attempted to answer yet: “What is G?” As it turns out, G may be exactly who he says he is.

Throughout the story, we hear G talking about himself and how he and the people on the planet are all one and one with Earth. This has always been a clue for me that G was controlling people since his words screamed of a hive mind mentality. In fact, this became even more apparent in Gill’s story mode in SFV.

The idea of a hive mind also permeates through G’s win quotes:

“Thank you, citizen of Earth. But know that sumo does not reign supreme! I do! We do!” – To E. Honda

“That wound… When you hurt, the citizens of the world hurt. We know this to be true.” – To Nash

It’s apparent to me that his use of “we” is more than just a metaphor for humanity. An individual in a collective hive mind would think what everyone else thinks and feel what everyone else feels. G, being the leader of the hive mind, would ensure there were no stray thoughts or feelings – everyone within the group would completely reflect what G wanted.

As I’ve stated in the past, it’s becoming more and more clear that G will bring about some sort of apocalypse, first by controlling the earth’s people, then by destroying the earth and terraforming it, ensuring that only his followers remain. Then he’ll do the same thing to other planets in the universe.

However, it isn’t clear why G would want to do this in the first place. Certainly, the idea of taking over the world and the universe isn’t new; both Bison and Gill wanted to conquer the world in their own ways, and Bison even stated he wanted more than just conquest of the world in SFV’s Cinematic Story Mode (alluding to the idea that he also wanted to control the universe).

The thing is G is different. G has been stating that he represents Earth, that his power comes from Earth, and says he cares about Earth and its people. If this is the case, why does he want to blow it up, especially if its been all but confirmed that G is an avatar of Earth?

One of the ideas I haven’t touched on is that G is a spirit of the earth, and it’s a very popular idea that has been tossed around among people on social media. In fact, it’s more than hinted at game that G is an avatar of Earth. We find it in his win quotes:

“You’ll find no vanity nor bravado here. For I am the Earth itself! I am all!” – To Poison

“Thank you! You, too, are me! You are the Earth, the universe, everything!” – To himself

We find it in his design.

We find it in the knockout zone in the Lair of the Four Kings stage.

Even Rose and Oro have stated that G is a force of nature.

So he must be a natural entity born of the earth. As some have pointed out, this must mean G is a protector of Earth and therefore must be a good guy since he’d basically be Captain Planet… except this doesn’t seem to be the case. The apocalyptic vision Rose has in her story is the same one that G has…

…And is the goal G more or less admits to in Gill’s story!

So why does G want to destroy everything? The answer is simple – he’s a force of nature with control over life and death who is MAD, in both senses of the term. He’s angry over what humans have done to the earth and crazy enough to destroy the universe to keep his vision of Earth safe from outside influence, leaving only him and his followers.

How do we know this? Because, aside from the evidence I’ve shown in previous theories, there’s precedent: G is not the first time we’ve seen an angry lunatic Earth god in a fighting game.

That title belongs to Orochi from King of Fighters.

Fandom states the following:

“Orochi is a divine being who calls itself “Gaia’s Will” (地球意志, Chikyu Ishi). It was supposedly born from the earth itself, manifested through floating emotions and substances of nature…. Since ancient times, Orochi was nature’s guardian and was granted with many of its powers. It gained followers to its cause and eventually formed a clan….

“1800 years ago, Orochi could no longer tolerate the destruction as a byproduct of human progression and wanted to completely wipe humanity from existence. It used the powers gained from nature purely as a tool for chaos.” https://snk.fandom.com/wiki/Orochi

It’s easy to see that G borrows a lot from Orochi: both are Earth avatars, both consider themselves Earth’s guardians, both have a legion of followers, and both seek to cause chaos.

The differences, however, are just as glaring: if Orochi is an ant, G is an anteater.

G could not only absorb Orochi’s power, but the power of Earth and its people as well. Moreso, G’s far more ambitious – Orochi wants to wipe out humanity, G wants to erase the universe.

We also have to look at how the two were designed. Whereas Orochi was based off of Japanese mythology and the legend of the Yamata no Orochi, G was based off of Western mythologies. Not only does G have Christian symbolism, he also has, along with Necalli, aspects of Mexican mythology as well, something I’ve explained in previous theories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamata_no_Orochi

What does this mean for G? Well, pretty much everything I’ve been saying for years: G is going to bring catastrophe to the Street Fighter universe, and unless the Rose of the past can figure out how to stop him, you can kiss your favorite characters goodbye. Even if they become Qs and survive, they’ll no longer be the characters you know and love.

“There’s still hope, right?,” you ask. “Maybe after he’s done, G will release them and let them rebuild?” Nope. G is not going to let humanity get a chance of ruining the earth a second time. Once people become Qs, they stay Qs.

“Ok, but this all sounds pretty evil. Oro even stated that G’s power isn’t evil.” G doesn’t seem to think so. He’s doing what he feels is natural, and that’s what makes it more disturbing. Rose describes him as an “overwhelming force of nature”, and someone who has the power of life and death can use pretty much any resources they have to kill people as a means of fulfilling the natural order, even going as far as using Shadaloo’s technology.

In other words, G can be evil, do evil things, know unequivocally what he’s doing is evil, and dance around to music in his head while evil things are being committed under his command as long as he believes that he’s doing it for the earth. That’s why neither Rose nor Oro can sense G’s form of evil: it’s hidden within the, as Oro puts it, “vibrations that are one with nature.”

…Or maybe G’s just a demon with the ability to hide his evil altogether?