Yasmine has been released to some acclaim. Players love the idea that she is relatable being a sweet, if depressed, girl with a penchant for doomscrolling. Although her aggressive playstyle appears to leave much to be desired regarding her toolkit, people are happy with her design, and the Filipino community continues to rejoice for their first representative in the Street Fighter franchise.
It could certainly be argued that Yasmine’s presence was foreshadowed from the beginning of the game. As it turns out, the World Tour key item Confidential Documents, which reported on Shadaloo’s search for Bison, mention a body with head injuries that was found in the Philippines on the fourth page.
In his win quote to Lily Hawk, JP states, “The Thunderfoot tribe? Ah, yes. Bison was quite fixated on the land they inhabit.” It turns out Bison got his horse, Rocinante, from Mexico, where both Lily and the Thunderfoot are from. More so, Necalli also originates from Mexico with his Aztec origins. Combined with the idea that Lily has the Satsui no Hado within her, functioning as her spirit guide Toyno’Ikonoi, and Necalli is literally an embodiment of the Satsui no Hado, Bison’s fixation on the land obviously revolves around leveling up his own Psycho Power with its “sister” power. Lily hints at this with her World Tour dialogue:
“Ever hear of ‘power spots’? Apparently, they’re places where energy gathers, unseen to the naked eye. Tall mountains, colossal trees, funky looking rocks… Those kinds of things. I visited a bunch of places like that during my travels.”
Lily finishes her dialogue by alluding to her encounter with Ryu at Genbu Temple, stating the place was “positively swimming with spirits”. Ryu being someone who was finally able to balance the Satsui no Hado, this entire tale went full circle: Bison discovers power spots in Mexico, discovering the power of the Satsui no Hado; he tries to use the Satsui no Hado in Ryu in order to inhabit Ryu’s body with his own power and fails; he later establishes Operation C.H.A.I.N.S. and the Black Moons, which brings forth Necalli; Ryu beats Necalli, thereby mastering and balancing the Satsui no Hado within him; Lily Hawk, who was born during a powerful storm that brought Toyno’Ikonoi to her side, runs into Ryu, the man who balanced the power of the Satsui no Hado; Lily tells the Avatar about power spots.
Now what does all of this have to do with Yasmine? Yasmine has been shown to have the ability to summon the Hadouken… to terrible results. However, this means she’s technically a Hado user and someone susceptible to the Satsui no Hado. In fact, despite Yasmine’s preference for physical attacks with her Karambit, she’s just one of several characters who use, understand, or could potentially be overwhelmed with the Satsui no Hado, including Ryu, Ken, Sagat, Akuma, Sakura, Dan, Sean, Gouken, Necalli, Kage, Lily, and, of all people, Karin (who is outright stated by her butler Shibasaki to be a Hado user). In other words, the Satsui no Hado can affect anyone who uses Hado, even if their martial arts style has nothing to do with being a typical Shoto.
It stands to reason then, if A.K.I.’s presence in Yasmine’s story is any indication, that the remnants of Shadaloo will still try to kidnap any fighter who has potential for Satsui following the original plan set by Bison. Indeed, even Seth did this for S.I.N, the BLECE Project being a way to reproduce the Satsui no Hado’s effects. In fact, this could also be the reason Bosch was kidnapped and turned into the Psycho-Powered Cardboard Combatant in World Tour.
This leaves us with a question: was Yasmine’s brother, Caleb, kidnapped by Shadaloo because he had access to Satsui?
A.K.I. more or less denies that she ever met Caleb… until she sees Yasmine’s karambit.
A.K.I. immediate clams up when Yasmine presses her for more information, and even after they fight, we are left with no answers as the scene immediately shifts to Yasmine hanging out with her friends, Ruby and Angela.
So are we just left to headcanon what the outcome was? Not entirely. We can actually come to a couple of conclusions. The first is that A.K.I. did run into Caleb, although he was likely an experiment for a different Shadaloo agent. Looking back at the Confidential Documents, we see that Shadaloo found a body in the Philippines with head injuries. The body they found in Egypt was found to be non-functional, potentially meaning dead. However, the body they found in the Philippines appears to be functioning despite its injuries, meaning the body is alive. It’s very possible that this body belongs to Caleb, who is alive and currently undergoing the same experimentation as Bosch was.
However, there’s a darker, more cryptic argument to be made here that we haven’t considered yet, as Yasmine seems to take almost every part of her design and personality from another character: the aforementioned Necalli.
If Yasmine did eat her brother, though, there is one person who knows all about it: A.K.I. Although A.K.I. does not recall “anyone with [Yasmine’s] bearing”, this could potentially have a double meaning. She didn’t previously see Yasmine as an articulate, interrogative hero type; she witnessed her as a monster tearing into and devouring her kuya’s flesh. The karambit that A.K.I. was familiar with may turn out to be the tool that the out-of-control Yasmine used to kill her big brother.
If this is the case, the body that Shadaloo found in the Philippines wasn’t Caleb’s, but Yasmine’s. The head injuries she would have sustained? Those could have been caused by Yasmine herself, who, realizing what happened, forced herself to forget by slamming her head into something hard, like a wall or a rock, so she didn’t have to remember. This would be enough for the approaching Shadaloo forces to leave her be.
There’s one more thing to consider, however, that needs to be addressed: the links between the Philippines and Mexico as “sister” countries. Much like Psycho Power and the Satsui no Hado are linked, so too has the Philippines and Mexico since the 1500s. In fact, there has been much migration between the two countries in that time, so much so that the Filipino language adopted several Nahuatl words into its vernacular. Interestingly enough, Necalli’s name is the Nahuatl word for “battle”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico–Philippines_relations
Fighting is indeed a world language.
Street Fighter Game Lore Theories 