Rashid

"I'm Rashid of the Turbulent Wind! Remember the name well! (「逆巻く風のラシード」それがオレの名だ！)"

- Rashid (Street Fighter V)

Rashid (ラシード) is a video game character from the Street Fighter series, first appearing in Street Fighter V. He is a laid-back Middle Eastern fighter with an affinity for the latest technology.

Appearance
Rashid has black hair, light brown eyes and well groomed facial hair. He also has a yellow-green eyepiece on his left eye which flashes briefly when he activates his V-Trigger. His head is adorned with short white shemagh and a black agal. His outfit is a long white sleeveless trench coat with black straps at the centre of his coat and is tucked into a black sash. Underneath is a black sleeveless shirt, white military pants and black open-toed combat boots. He also wears black and dark grey battle wristbands on both of his hands.

His alternate costume is a modern type of outfit, consisting of a dark gray short sleeve loose shirt with a big golden bear emblazoned at the left side, denim khaki pants, white sandals with a gold round in the center and black soles. He also wears a gray bandanna on his head, a long golden chain necklace on his neck and a matching chain bracelet in his left wrist. His facial hair is longer.

His second alternate costume has him wearing only a purple vest with gold outlines, blue green baggy pants with a red obi and a scimitar on his waist. He is barefoot and wears a white turban with a red gem in the center.

Personality
Rashid is described as an easy goer with a laid-back attitude. He has an affinity for any kind of the latest technology and other new things. Like Elena, he also likes to make friends with other people he meets. Rashid can also mistake certain people as his relatives, as he mistook Zangief for his grandfather and his servant, Azam. He is always with Azam in during his travels. Rashid has also a bit of a goofy side, his encounters with Zangief and R. Mika being good examples.

In A Shadow Falls, Rashid is shown to be ignored by other fighters when they are facing against their opponents. He also befriends Charlie (who was just defeated by M. Bison at the time), as he is the one who restores Charlie's calm behavior and conscience by explaining his quest to find his kidnapped friend.

His most notable confrontation is his fight against F.A.N.G. After F.A.N.G reveals that he killed Rashid's friend, Rashid loses his easygoing personality and becomes vengeful and angry, threatening to kill F.A.N.G.

Concept
The creation of Rashid was a close collaboration between Capcom Japan, Sony, and Pluto Games. The latter is Capcom's officially licensed distributor in the Middle East region. Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of rival fighting game series Tekken, also encouraged Yoshinori Ono to include a Middle Eastern fighter in the Street Fighter main games. An early design had Rashid nearly resembling a cyborg.

Background
Rashid is the eldest son of an old Middle Eastern family who's travelling the world in search of a missing friend who has been kidnapped by Shadaloo.

Prologue Story
Prologue - 'Embarkation' 

Rashid is eating in a Chinese restaurant with his servant, Azam, discussing how his friend gone missing and how Shadaloo is involved. One of his friends online tells how he recently saw a man with the Mark of Shadaloo walking around, to which Rashid rushes and leads to Birdie. Rashid questions Birdie about where the Shadaloo base is located, and Birdie responds with a fight. Rashid wins the fight and proceeds to ask Birdie about Shadaloo, to which Birdie responds that he left. Rashid then explains that his friend was working at the S.I.N. lab before disappearing. When Birdie rude-fully dismissing the person, he finally opens up when Azam starts to question him. It is never revealed what Birdie had told Rashid and Azam.

He later talks to his friends online again and one of them, a person named Maya (Crimson Viper), tells him to fight Ryu in order to see if he can take on Shadaloo. She gives him the coordinates to his location, and also warns him to not get heavily involved with Shadaloo.

Rashid and Azam find Ryu (who is with Gouken), as the former introduces himself as a hero who travels the world. Gouken wonders why a hero like Rashid comes here. Rashid wants to test his mettle by challenging Ryu; he takes a fighting stance but Ryu does not jump into the fight. Rashid finds this odd as sources have stated that doing so will cause Ryu to immediately fight. He asks Ryu if he's not up to fight, to which Ryu accepts his challenge.

Rashid and Ryu proceed to fight, but Ryu pulls off a Shoryuken and defeats Rashid in a single blow. Rashid accepts his defeat, and they both have a friendly handshake after the fight; Rashid is happy that he will have a great story to tell everyone in his hometown, and he's grateful that he was able to learn more of his own skills. Rashid and Azam promptly depart.

After his defeat, Azam asks him whether or not he will continue to search for his friend. Rashid responds that he will not stop his search, as he realized something important to him in his fight with Ryu. He felt something in Ryu's fist about his passion to keep moving forward. Rashid decides to save his friend from Shadaloo even if he is alone in his journey. He asks Azam if he is coming along with him, in which Azam replies that he will indeed go with him to save his friend from the grasp of Shadaloo.

Other prologue appearances
Prologue - 'A Red Omen' 

Rashid and Azam encounter Zangief and R. Mika during Zangief's prologue story. Azam is revealed to be an advisor of a group known as the "Muscle Soul Fighters Club", of which Zangief and Laura are a part of. Rashid is enthusiastic to meet the famous wrestler, and is in awe at his muscularity. This prompts Zangief to have a friendly match with Rashid, whom is very hesitant but reluctantly fights anyways. After, he is challenged by R. Mika, to which he tries to take his way out of; the two have an unseen match. Their fight ends with Zangief and Azam telling the two about spirit and how it pertains to them presently.

Prologue - 'The Path of a Yogi' 

In Dhalsim's prologue story, Rashid and Azam meet up with the yoga master in India. He request to have a fight with Dhalsim, adamant that he will improve his skill by learning yoga from their match. He is seemingly unvictourious, and laments on the fact that he thought he could learn yoga from one quick match. Before he leaves, he asks Dhalsim if he had seen his friend, to which the yoga master replies that he did not. He thanks him and leaves with Azam.

A Shadow Falls
At some point in A Shadow Falls, Rashid defeats two Shadaloo soldiers that are holding Li-Fen captive and asks her where his missing friend is. Li-Fen points out the direction and Rashid leaves, promising that he will escape with her after he retrieves his friend. Rashid does not find his friend, but encounters F.A.N.G as he walks out of the building Li-Fen pointed to. F.A.N.G sees that Rashid is holding a chess piece and Rashid offers to trade the piece for his friend, but F.A.N.G ignores him and initiates a fight that ends in Rashid being knocked out and F.A.N.G taking his piece.

Later on, Rashid receives information from Helen (who is later revealed to be Kolin in disguise) about the pieces that control the Black Moons. In a ravaged New York, Rashid and Azam encounter Chun-Li, Guile, Cammy, and Nash. As Nash fights Guile, Rashid introduces himself and announces that he will be taking Chun-Li's piece, then defeats her as Azam holds off Cammy to prevent interference. Rashid teasingly apologizes, but notices that Nash has defeated Guile and taken Guile's piece. Nash escapes before Rashid can give chase, so Rashid flies off with Azam on a self-generated tornado. Later on, he and Azam are in Russia after being told to meet Helen at the Underground Arena, and they notice that Nash walks in as well. Helen comes out to reveal herself, and Juri then arrives. Juri decides to test the fighting ability of Helen's other recruits, and challenges a startled Rashid. The two fight and Rashid calls off the fight after being overwhelmed by Juri. Juri threatens to kill Rashid if he won't fight seriously and Azam steps in to defend him, but Helen stops the conflict to explain Shadaloo's plan to use the Black Moons and her plan to foil that plot. She points out that Rashid wants to find his friend, which garners his interest and convinces him to join.

Rashid and Azam visit the Kanzuki Estate to see Karin, who is offended by their trespassing and calls Rashid a "guest without any manners." Rashid asks her for the piece and she tells him to earn it by defeating her in a fight, which she wins. Karin restrains Rashid and he surrenders, then escapes her hold and promises her that he will never use the pieces for evil before leaving with Azam.

Rashid and Azam found Nash, feeling defeated after his failed attempt on Bison's life. Rashid opens up to him about him about his missing friend, which in turn helped Nash regain his conscience. However Necalli found the three of them and gave chase until until they caught up to Karin's helicopter and escaped to the Kanzuki Estate. After Nash cured Abel the three of them left to regroup with Helen. After a short argument between Nash and Helen, Rashid and Azam followed him into the final assault on the Shadaloo Base. When Rashid entered the computer room he was met with a riddle devised by his friend. Rashid easily guessed the password (his moniker: Rashid of the Turbulent Wind) and the cancellation process began. F.A.N.G arrived, shocked to see his supposedly fool-proof plan beginning to fail. In a fit of rage F.A.N.G remaked that he should have 'killed that traitor', immediately grabbing his attention. F.A.N.G quickly connected the dots and boasted that he was indeed the one who murdered Rashid's friend. Rashid became enraged and defeated F.A.N.G in order to avenge his friend's death. When Rashid had his back turned F.A.N.G retaliated by poisoning him and making a break for the console. Before F.A.N.G could undo the cancellation process he was confronted by a newly freed Marz, who sacrificed herself in a desperate bid to kill F.A.N.G, Rashid watching powerlessly all the while. Rashid fought off a final wave of Shadaloo soldiers until the cancellation process was complete. With Operation: C.H.A.I.N.S. permanently aborted he took the opportunity to rest, hardly believing that he had managed to saved the world.

After Ryu defeated Bison and the Shadaloo base was destroyed, Rashid and Azam watched the other fighters from afar. At the last minute Rashid received a bittersweet message from his friend, in which she congratulated him for successfully stopping the Black Moons and told him to enjoy the rest of his life. Rashid then stood up and left with Azam, carrying with him a newfound resolve.

UDON
Rashid makes an appearance in the Street Fighter V comics series.

Fighting Style and Gameplay
Rashid is a nimble fighter that uses his own unique fighting style derived from Parkour. He uses acrobatic kicks, somewhat similar to Hokuto, and has the ability to control winds, to create small tornadoes similar to Cody's Criminal Upper when utilizing some of his special attacks. His V-Trigger, Ysaar, summons a giant tornado which can be used as a barrier for mixups, similar to Urien's Aegis Reflector traps. His Critical Art, Altair, enables him to be engulfed in a giant tornado that damages the opponent multiple times before dealing two final kicks. Rashid also is the first character to have two V-Skills.

Quotes
Rashid/Quotes

Trivia

 * Rashid's nationality has only been labelled as "Middle Eastern", though most evidence points to the United Arab Emirates being his likely origin. The background on Rashid's official character artwork is the Dubai skyline viewed from out in the desert, he was first officially revealed in Dubai, and finally his home-stage, Skies of Honor, is set on the back of his own private jet as it flies through the Dubai city-scape.


 * Rashid was first officially unveiled on September 11, 2015 at a Dubai game show and was the second of the four new fighters confirmed for Street Fighter V. Rashid is also the second male Middle Eastern fighter within the main games (after Hakan); counting the Street Fighter EX series, he would be the third Middle Eastern fighter, following Pullum Purna.
 * Interestingly, both Rashid and Pullum have the ability to manipulate wind, though Rashid does it to a much larger extent.


 * Rashid is similar and has been compared to Shaheen from the Tekken series, as they are both Middle Eastern (Shaheen being from Saudi Arabia) acrobatic fighters. Rashid however speaks English fluently (as well as having a Japanese dub voice) while Shaheen speaks actual Arabic. The name of Rashid's Critical Art, Altair, is also the name of one of Shaheen's special attacks. Their personalities are somewhat opposites though, while Rashid is described as an easygoer with a laid back attitude, Shaheen can be described as a serious man who dislikes violence.
 * Both characters have friends who are involved in the enemy's territorries (like both G-Corporation and Shadaloo respectively) which leads them to be killed at their hands. Rashid tries to find his missing friend who is later revealed to be killed by F.A.N.G while Shaheen is reluctant to investigate G-Corporation after his friend was mysteriously killed by an unknown assailant.
 * It should also be noted that Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada encouraged Yoshinori Ono to include a Middle Eastern fighter in the Street Fighter main games (as mentioned above).


 * Most of Rashid's contacts within the social media that he uses (based on Twitter) are well-known Street Fighter characters such as Fei Long, Hakan, Abel, C. Viper, Necro, Poison and Dan.


 * His Critical Art, Altair, has similarities to Akuma's Demon Armageddon Ultra Combo from the Street Fighter IV series, his Messatsu Gorasen Super Art from Street Fighter III and Ryu's Shinku Tatsumaki Senpukyaku in its crossover appearances.


 * His way of manipulating wind is similar to Jin from the manga and anime series, YuYu Hakusho and Fuko Kirisawa from another manga and anime series, Flame of Recca. Some of his special attacks resembles Jin's Shura Senpuuken and Bakufuu Shouheki and Fuko's Kamaitachi.


 * Rashid's eyepiece looks similar to the Scouter eyepiece from the Dragon Ball Z series.


 * Although Rashid's concept and design bears many direct references, he also mirrors SNK's Fatal Fury character Alfred, mainly due to his wind manipulation ability.


 * Rashid's second alternate costume bears a slight resemblance to Aladdin's (specifically, the Disney company's interpretation of the character) outfit; his white turban has a little resemblance to Aladdin's turban as Prince Ali.

Gallery
Rashid/Gallery