Good Game: The Two Gs

Near the end of 2021, Street Fighter V director Takayuki Nakayama shared information with Twitter user Io Housenka regarding some of the lore surrounding Neo Shadaloo. While I did share the original tweet on my own account, since it’s entirely in Japanese, it’s impossible to translate correctly unless you can read Japanese. Fortunately, Event Hubs did a good job summarizing some of the points within the conversation. https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2021/nov/08/street-fighter-gorilla-ed/

We ended up getting some interesting bits about the powers of all of the Neo Shadaloo members seen in Ed’s story mode.

As it turns out, all of them have a connection to Bison, who gave them his powers as a way for a possible return. Ed has the ability to expel Psycho Power while Falke has the ability to inject it into items, but the information that most people wanted to see, though, involved the gorilla. The gorilla, whose name was revealed to be Baba Mwalimu (which means “Father Teacher” in Swahili), has Bison’s intelligence, and knowledgeable about certain things which have not been revealed as of yet.

There’s been some serious fan support regarding Baba Mwalimu, as players have suggested they would like the character to be playable. This could potentially happen in Street Fighter 6 as Neo Shadaloo’s story begins its narrative, and indeed, Baba Mwalimu could turn out to be very important to Street Fighter 6’s story. (Some are conjecturing a potential rivalry with Blanka, but nothing in the current narrative suggests this will happen.)

While Baba is a fascinating character in their own right, there’s another member of Neo Shadaloo I’m personally more interested in: the man with the triangle-shaped hair.

We know that Bison gave this person the power to teleport, and the knives he wields appear to have some kind of factor with it. However, that wasn’t the information that intrigued me the most. It was when Nakayama talked about the initials of each of the characters’ names that made me think. Baba was B, Ed was E, and Falke was F. The name of the last character wasn’t revealed, but Nakayama did reveal the letter that his name started with: G.

So, there’s an interesting connection between this character and the President of the World from Street Fighter V, and it revolves around their names. Now, this character’s name could end up being mundane, like George or Gordon or Gerald, or even something abstract like Gestalt or Galaxy or Genesis. However, if Capcom is truly seeking to play mind games with their audience, then it’s pretty clear what this man’s name is.

It’s G, the same as the Man of Mystery.

If this character’s name does end up being G, he would actually be the third character in the Street Fighter universe with the name, the first being a minor character from Final Fight 3. However, the Final Fight character’s name apparently stands for “Great” and he doesn’t seem to have a connection with the President of the World. https://streetfighter.fandom.com/wiki/G_(Final_Fight_3)

As for the character with knives, though, having the same name as the President would open up several possibilities, including the answer to the question, “Is this person the same as the G with Pangaea Burst?” Based on what I’m seeing, the answer is likely no. There doesn’t seem to be any information that connects G and “G” as the same person. However, there is one piece of evidence that suggests the two have a mutual connection – the Illuminati’s G File.

Since it’s previously been established by Nakayama himself that the G File is connected to G, this means that the Illuminati, as an historical group, have been expecting President G’s presence for some time. Neither Gill nor Kolin seem to know anything about him, but even they should be able to make the connection that the G File was there to warn them about him. In fact, if this is the case, the Illuminati’s entire purpose was to protect the world from G using any means necessary, including murder and experimentation.

In other words, the utopia Gill seeks to create isn’t supposed to be about balance or getting the best fighters for their own sinister purposes – they’re supposed to create a place where G can’t get to them! It seems that the Illuminati has lost its way, completely forgetting it’s original mission and bringing destruction on the world for what they claim to be altruistic ends. Instead of saving the world, they’re doing G’s job for him, and all G has to do is show up and make his presence known.

With G being forseen by the original Illuminati for centuries, it stands to reason that Shadaloo would know of his pending arrival as well, with Bison knowing more than anyone about what’s to come. As much as I personally want to believe that Bison knows nothing about G, if Vega was handing Doll Project technology over to G, Bison would know about it, and he would have allowed it to happen in order to keep tabs on the President.

Moreso, this would allow Bison to prepare on his terms. Since his cloning project was already up and running, then it would be practical to create a body that was in many ways identical to the person he was trying to fight against. We don’t yet know the extent of the powers of “G”, but if Capcom wants to establish a connection between him and the original G, the fact they have similar physical traits could be a clue that they share more than what Capcom’s letting on.

Outside of both characters having names with the letter G as the primary focus, they’re both tall, lean men with thick blond hair and beards. They certainly dress differently, but that comes with their respective statuses – G appears to be a very rich man with a taste in fine Victorian clothing whereas “G” is an experiment who was hidden away for years and has no real means to make his way in the world around him.

So what would happen if these Gs end up crossing paths? They’d likely recognize the other. The original G would know immediately what was going on while “G” would be a little shocked to face the man he was modeled after. They’d fight, and the joke, of course, is that G would win. The original one, though, would be far more powerful, and it’s here that things would take the wildest of turns.

Upon defeating the clone, the original G would extend his hand in apparent sportsmanship. “G” would likely reach out and take it. If my previous theories are correct, then this would start the process of “G” being transformed into a Q. In other words, “G” would become Q and end up being controlled by G. This would make the two primary opposing ideas regarding G, that G is either Q or is controlling Q, both completely correct, as “G” would be a Q controlled by G. We will have come full circle.

When I first saw “G”, I originally thought he would become Q, as he seemed to have the same size and height as Q and it kind of looked like he was already wearing a mask, although it’s hard to determine what his face actually looks like in the one image we have of him. Even if “G” ends up with a more than one-letter name, he could still become Q as I’ve already stated that Ed and Falke would likely be converted into Qs at some point, if my theory on in-game developer hints regarding mythology hold true. https://manestreetblog.com/2019/02/20/the-future-of-ed-and-falke/

What we’re seeing, then, is an entity named G who inspired the Illuminati’s G File, the information of which was known by Shadaloo who created their own “G” who broke free with others only to fight G and become Q, who is controlled by the original G.

In other words, G controls G. It’s the circle of strife.