Seth

"Power only has meaning if it's put into action... it defines you. Power like that is what rules the world."

- Seth during his fight with Ryu in the Street Fighter IV movie .

"Show me everything you have to offer. (貴様の全てを見せてもらおう)"

- Seth (Street Fighter IV series)

Seth (セス) is a video game character from the Street Fighter series, first appearing as the main antagonist of Street Fighter IV. He is the CEO of Shadaloo's weapon division, S.I.N., and one of many genetically engineered replacement bodies for M. Bison.

Appearance
Bearing silver skin and an extremely muscular physique, Seth is a synthetic human that lacks clothing or hair; whether he is an android or cyborg, or both, is unclear. In his abdomen, enclosed inside a pattern consisting of the Eight Trigrams of Taoist cosmology, is an exposed area, which contains a rotating sphere known as the Tanden Engine, which appears to be his source of his power.

At 6'6" and 187lbs Seth is abnormally light for someone of his size and musculature, implying whatever material he wasn't constructed from is considerably lighter than human tissue.

Seth's appearance is similar to countless other characters with featureless humanoid designs, such as Doctor Manhattan (Watchmen), Silver Surfer (Fantastic Four), Geegus (World Heroes), Tyrant T-103 (Resident Evil 2) and Dural (Virtua Fighter). Perhaps coincidentally, he uses both Dural and Tyrants as minions in his appearances in Project X Zone.

Concept
Seth was originally named Cain, in contrast to Abel. Abel and Cain were the first sons of Adam and Eve, and Cain later committed the first murder by killing his brother out of jealousy. Adam and Eve then gave birth to Seth, who was considered a replacement of Abel; the character was then named after Seth Killian, the former senior manager of community at Capcom who ran the website Capcom-Unity.com, preserving the reference and still explaining the correlation between the two (i.e. as replacement bodies for M. Bison).

Outside of that, Seth's name and design has other possible inspirations; his name could be a double reference to the Egyptian God of Chaos Seth. He may have also been inspired by S.E.T.H. from the movie Universal Soldier: The Revenge. In addition to sharing the same name (S.E.T.H. stands for "Self Evolving Thought Helix"), S.E.T.H. is originally an orb shaped super computer similar to the Tanden Engine. A miniaturized version is installed in the head of a super 'Universal Soldier' thus giving it a body. After being shot in the chest, S.E.T.H.s shirt has a round hole in it, reminiscent to the round orb in Seths abdomen. Before being destroyed, S.E.T.H. is covered in liquid nitrogen which leaves him looking completely pale and white like Seth. Both Seth and S.E.T.H. are capable of self determination and consider themselves superior to their 25 counterparts (clones and uni-sols respectively).

Additionally, Seth's ability to use other fighters' attacks as part of his movelist may be inspired by the Sheng Long rumor, as Sheng Long was said to have moves from every character in the game. This is also similar in concept to the Cycloids and Ace from the Street Fighter EX series. Furthermore, the basis of Seth's design and fighting style could have been based on the Shadaloo Cyborgs from the Street Fighter animated movie game adaptation for the home consoles as he was originally a nude cyborg whose fighting style was constructed from scanning battle data from Ryu. In one of the endings, the cyborg even wears apparel identical to that of Seth.

Personality
Seth is just as intelligent as M. Bison himself, with ruthlessness and evil to match. Unlike M. Bison, Seth is generally very calm and concise, though he displays a fair bit of arrogance, often through his annoying-by-design tendency to laugh and gloat when using his more powerful moves. Seth also demonstrates a deep knowledge of the philosophy of human nature and the pursuits of purpose and self-awareness. This unusual trait, coupled with his endless thirst for power, implies that Seth intends to become his own entity entirely and not be bound to M. Bison as his replacement shell. Notably, while Seth appears to be the only "sentient" enhanced being, his Arcade Mode win quote against another Seth implies that at least one other clone may have developed self-awareness.

However, his desire for power and his philosophical pursuits are a one-sided and neutral affair; he displays very little (if any) morality or respect for life, and values people only for their usefulness to him. Due in part to his ego, Seth will keep his S.I.N. subordinates in the dark in case they plan to betray him - insubordination is something he refuses to tolerate. Seth is of the belief that any power is good power, as indicated during his fight with Ryu in the animated film. In addition, despite his philosophical leanings, Seth displays some form of disbelief in the mystic arts; his Arcade Mode win quote against Dhalsim states that if the latter's techniques were truly mystic, he could not possibly imitate them.

Character Relationships
Like M. Bison before him, Seth has made many enemies during his time as both CEO of S.I.N. and the tournament's host:

Ryu
One of Ryu's greatest enemies, Ryu despises Seth and vice versa due to their different philosophies on power and on how to acquire it.

Juri
Juri sees Seth as a pawn in her attempt to get revenge for the murder of her parents, despite the perverse joy she displays in working for him and brutally dealing with the enemies of S.I.N. Seth is well aware of this as shown in his ending.

Street Fighter IV series
Seth is the 15th of at least 26 enhanced beings that use data collected from the world warriors to create a deadly style of mixed martial arts. Seth claims to be superior as a result of his humanity, while the others are merely puppets. His storyline indicates that he plans to control the remnants of Shadaloo through S.I.N. after M. Bison's apparent death at the hands of Akuma in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. He also attempts to use Juri Han, a woman who possesses the Feng Shui Engine in her left eye that his company created. She confronts him and unexpectedly offers to work for him, to which he agrees.

Seth hosts a World Warrior tournament in hopes of luring Ryu to him, and then using his Satsui no Hado to complete his BLECE project, but is dismayed at reports that M. Bison has once again returned from death. M. Bison finally encounters Seth and defeats him in combat, and afterwards tells him that in fact everything that has happened has gone according to M. Bison's plan. After M. Bison leaves, Juri tells Seth that she intentionally pitted the two against each other, but is disappointed that Seth was not more of a challenge for M. Bison. She then crushes his Tanden Engine, leaving him dead and twitching on the floor.

One of his brethren is found by C. Viper, who finishes him off. After the tournament, C. Viper informs her superiors that the "remaining 26" are in her sights. Whether this statement takes the final bosses encountered by all characters into account is not clear; Ryu encounters what appears to be another "Seth" and defeats him, destroying the BLECE machine as well. It is possible M. Bison may have commanded the remaining "puppets" to wreak havoc on the fighters in and around the S.I.N. compound, but it is implied that Juri destroyed most of them.

Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind
In the movie, Seth is first seen talking to a scientist about the experiment in the Amazon, wanting to make it commercially viable. Later, Seth discusses BLECE with Viper, revealing that BLECE is used to allow access to fighting energy, which is the reason why S.I.N. abducted the fighters, and are now after Ryu. C. Viper suggests that Seth come to see what Ryu is capable of personally.

In a cruise ship owned by S.I.N, Ryu is in a struggle with Seth, and losing. Seth speaks in length about obtaining ultimate power. Ryu realizes that the power he was looking for is not what he thought, and, indirectly through Seth's speech, found his purpose of seeking strength - to protect what is good and fight evil. Seth laughs and tells Ryu his speech is pure nonsense and attempts to attack him.

Ryu exhibits his new power, a result of rejecting the Satsui no Hado through his enlightenment (the same power Gouken uses and Ken used earlier, but even more powerful, his eyes glowing blue). His power burns the skin off of Seth's hand, and he defeats Seth with an unstoppable Metsu Hadoken, which burns through the android's muscles for a short period of time. After his defeat, Seth is rescued by S.I.N. members.

Seth is eventually cornered by Guile, Cammy, and the U.S Coast Guard. however, A Shadaloo helicopter picks up Seth, with Balrog and Vega on board, the latter of whom tells Seth that Shadaloo is the real manipulator.

UDON comics
Seth appears in UDON's Street Fighter IV comic, which is centered on the original SFIV newcomers. As #15, the C.E.O. of S.I.N., he sends C. Viper to kidnap martial artists from around the globe to further enhance his ultimate weapon, BLECE.

After capturing Dan and Sakura, #15 selects the former as his next test subject, believing that the Satsui no Hado lay within his body); however, Sakura escapes and attacks his underlings in an effort to save Dan. #15 defeats her easily, and decides that she will be the next test subject, when he suddenly hears a noise. Investigating the source of the sound leads him to an intruder, who turns out to be Abel. #15 desires to know how Abel is capable of free will, and Abel wants to discover his true identity.

As the two fight, #15 tells Abel about his true purpose and his lack of humanity; though he eventually overpowers Abel and defeats him, before #15 can finish him, he feels a power very similar to the Satsui no Hado. This marks the appearance of Akuma, who believes #15 to be a worthy opponent, and challenges him.

As the fight continues, Akuma realizes that #15 has no true soul and uses the Raging Demon on him; as a result of the previously mentioned fact, the attack does not kill #15. Suddenly, the BLECE project malfunctions, and #15's program starts to reboot; he realizes that he's free from M. Bison's control, and decides to go by the name of Seth (having seen the name in a "book" he was reading at some point in the past). From that point on, the newly christened Seth begins to devise a plan to conquer the world for himself.

Project × Zone
Seth appears as an enemy in the crossover game, Project × Zone, where he plays a major role in the game. Seth hacked Alisa Boskonovich's systems to make her a weapon; he also took a V-Dural and mass produced it, creating four Dural stones. Seth also intended to destroy KOS-MOS to get her Vector technology (such act caused an enraged T-elos to join the player's party). With the bioweapons of Resident Evil, he created clone capsules, which were Nemesis T-Type to guard it.

Seth planned to take down Juri, retrieve the Feng Shui Engine and use her body as a core for Dural; he also sought not only to copy other characters' moves in order to "become an ultimate weapon", but also to capture Ryu and Jin Kazama to use their hidden powers (the Satsui no Hado and Devil Gene) in the BLECE. However, he was defeated for good.

In the last chapter, he is revived by the Portalstone, only to be beaten once more.

Fighting style and abilities
Seth's fighting style is officially refered as "Move duplication". He has the ability to copy the special attacks and powers of any fighter.

Moveset
In Arcade Mode, Seth serves as the default final boss for all characters; as such, he is powerful enough to provide a greater challenge to them. Taunting at any point or defeating him during the first round increases the difficulty of the battle. Conversely, the playable version of Seth (i.e. #15) is significantly less powerful, and is the weakest character in the game in terms of stats and Ultra Combos.

Seth employs special powers and techniques from various characters, such as the Sonic Boom and Shoryuken. He also possesses a metamorphic body of sorts, being able to stretch his arms like Dhalsim and teleport similarly to him. Seth also puts his own "original" spin on many of the copied moves, explained below.

Some of his normal techniques are also similar to those of Abel, as well as Urien and Gill from Street Fighter III.

Copied Moves

 * Sonic Boom - The motion is identical to the Hadoken, but the projectile itself functions just like Guile's. Seth uses one hand for the attack, like Charlie did (albeit the other hand).
 * Shoryuken - Though it resembles Ryu's Shoryuken somewhat, Seth can land up to 3 hits with follow-up motions.
 * Spinning Piledriver - Based somewhat off Zangief's version, Seth uppercuts the opponent into the air, then teleports above the opponent and piledrives them into the ground.
 * Hyakuretsukyaku - Seth does a single kick followed by a rapid flurry of unseen force if it connects.
 * Yosokyaku - While in the air, Seth kicks the opponent while upright, similar to Chun-Li, though it can be repeated three times with follow-up motions.
 * Yoga Teleport - The move is identical to Dhalsim's, and is named as such in his moveset, although he cannot use it in midair, making it slightly more similar to a Bison Warp.
 * Tenmakujinkyaku - While in the air, Seth dive kicks towards the opponent, similar to Akuma.
 * Focus Attack - A long-range tackle similar to Urien's Chariot Tackle in Street Fighter III.

The only uncopied techniques in Seth's arsenal revolve around his Tanden Engine, and seem to center around space.


 * Tanden Engine - Seth attempts to draw the opponent closer with the Tanden Engine.
 * Tanden Storm (Super Combo) - Seth produces a ball of energy that draws in his opponent and hits them repeatedly before blasting them away.
 * Tanden Stream (Ultra Combo I) - Seth attempts to draw the opponent into his Engine and, if successful, ejects them into the screen.
 * Tanden Typhoon (Ultra Combo II) - Seth twists his body into an arc, with his feet and head on the ground and his stomach facing upwards. He then unleashes a violent vortex diagonally upwards from his Engine.

Quotes

 * See Seth/Quotes.

Trivia

 * Seth is the only character in the Street Fighter IV series who is capable of resetting juggle.


 * Due to his skill and his status, he is somewhat similar to Shinnok from the Mortal Kombat series.


 * Due to him being created by M. Bison sometime during Street Fighter II, Seth could be considered the youngest playable Street Fighter character.


 * Seth's business attire was also intended to be one of his alternate costumes, but ended up unused.


 * Seth is despised by many for his design, moveset and cheap AI. Producer Yoshinori Ono has even acknowledged the hatred, saying; "Everybody hates Seth, that's why he's back as the end boss in SSFIV. I want to torture people with him!" [...] "Seth will remain a target of universal hate".

Gallery
Seth/Gallery