Gill

Gill (ギル, Giru) is a character in the Street Fighter series. He is the main boss of the Street Fighter III series. He is voiced by Bruce Robertson in New Generation and 2nd Impact and by Lawrence Bayne in 3rd Strike.

Concept
Gill is physically modeled after the Greek Gods of antiquity. His personality comes from various Judeo-Christian sources. Gill's name might come from the Hebrew Gilead, meaning "eternal joy." It is also a common Sikh name.

He is similar to Jesus of Nazareth in his claims of being the messiah, the savior of mankind. In that respect Urien, his jealous brother, can be compared to Judas Iscariot; Urien's nickname in the Japanese Street Fighter III manual even refers to Judas. Gill's Resurrection technique may also be based on Jesus' resurrection from the dead, and the posture Gill assumes during this technique, suspended in the air with his arms outward, evokes the image of Christ during crucifixion. Gill's Seraphic Wing technique refers to seraphim, the six-winged, highest order of angels in Jewish and Christian beliefs. When Gill performs Seraphic Wing, he takes on the six-winged angelic form, "offering" salvation. Finally, in Gill's 3rd Strike ending, he parts the ocean and leads his people to the promised land, likening him to Moses.

In addition to his Greek God and Hebrew Abrahamic influences, Gill was also envisioned as a "Greek Pankration like Gandhi" by Akiman during conception of his character.

Appearance
Gill's appearance is characterized by his half red and half blue muscular body and flowing blond hair. He bears a distinct and intentional resemblance to a Greek God. Gill's asymmetrical color scheme was a device for Capcom to display the graphical power of the CPS-3 board. In previous SF games, details such as Sagat's eye-patch would switch depending on which way the character was facing. Originally, Gill was to be colored black and white. It was later decided to color him red and blue, to better show off the game's graphical power. The black and white palette is used as a secondary color. Additionally, Gill was designed wearing a loin cloth to show off as much of his red and blue hues as possible.

The sprite of Gill's secretary, Kolin, has an intentionally asymmetrical haircut, so, like Gill, she appears graphically impressive when rotating from facing one direction to another, instead of being a mirrored sprite. In 3rd Strike, a special glow has been programmed to constantly render his sprite in both positive and negative coloration, further showing off the CPS3 board's impressive graphical power.

Personality
He is presented as a cult leader who would become a benevolent monarch over his worthy subjects. However, he and his cult use kidnapping, coercion, DNA manipulation, brainwashing, and extreme force in order to select their chosen people, and they have been behind a majority of the world's events and criminal organizations to attain their ends.

As far as achievements go, Gill often takes a loss, sometimes in order to fulfill a much bigger goal; other times, he does so out of respect for his foe's fighting ability.

Story
Gill is the leader of a mysterious cult-like organization called the Illuminati which has manipulated world events for over 2000 years, and is dedicated to the salvation of mankind, and creation of a new utopia. The Illuminati had genetically enhanced Gill in his youth, increasing his strength and speed so that he could participate in an intense hand-to-hand combat training program. Gill became the top student out of the hundreds of enhanced warriors involved, surpassing even his own jealous brother, Urien.

According to Illuminati legend, the soul of the previous Illuminati Emperor would be reincarnated into a new body after death; the organization determined, through the results of their special training program, that the latest incarnation of the Emperor was Gill. Therefore, at the age of 22, Gill was appointed President of the Illuminati. Urien was overlooked due to his emotional instability, and appointed vice president under Gill. Later, Urien challenged Gill for the presidency of the Illuminati and succeeded. Urien then became the president of the Illuminati. However, Gill was not demoted - in fact, he was promoted out of the title of president and became the new Emperor and messiah.

Under Gill, the Illuminati continued to gain power and resources, acquiring capital and estates through various business transactions. When the organization came into possession of a certain Jaguar automobile from the father of a British heavyweight boxing champion known as Dudley, Gill himself was challenged by the pugilist in order to have the automotive heirloom returned. Gill, being respectful of powerful fighting ability, agreed to return the precious car, as its worth was insignificant compared to the coffers of his organization.

The Illuminati continued to conduct genetic enhancements and other intrusive mutations on humans, either kidnapping their subjects or creating and/or enhancing them artificially, in a development series known as the G-Project. These experiments resulted in the creation of the super soldiers known as Necro and Twelve, enhanced beings designed to carry out the bidding of the Illuminati (though Necro went rouge). This project also led to the abduction of a young girl who was under the care of the ICPO agent Chun-Li.

With the aid of his faithful secretary Kolin (pronounced like "Colleen") and despite his younger brother's meddling, Gill organized the third World Warrior tournament with the aim of finding those strong enough to be worthy of repopulating humanity after the end of the world. During this tournament, Ibuki was tasked by her clan to retrieve the G-Project files. Fortunately for her, Gill gave up the files voluntarily; the project was already underway at the time, meaning that the files would no longer be needed.

At some point during the end of the tournament, Gill was defeated by Alex, and then killed when Akuma caught him by surprise with the Shun Goku Satsu, though he resurrected himself as Akuma left the battle.

Gill as the Savior
The Illuminati required a living messiah because their prophecies dictated that the rapture was imminent, thus signaling the end of humanity. Their messiah would be the one who would bring salvation and create a new Eden for the worthy remainder of mankind.

Gill's ending from Street Fighter III: Second Impact states that "'When the sun sets on the Soliton Mountain, the black moon will break into seven pieces and fall on the people "Ultania". Nothing can prevent this... Death and destruction will violate the land. Misery and suffering will assault the people... Then, after 130 days of nothingness, a boy who controls the elements will come to save the people.' -From the Book of Miraha 3:11-". This is the Illuminati's prophecy for the events that signify the end of the world, which will take place in 2200 AD. The "boy who controls the elements" refers to Gill, and the prophecy predicts that he will act as humanity's savior. Gill, however, planned to create this utopia ahead of the prophesized date, deeming himself powerful enough to do so. In his Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike ending, Gill collects the most powerful fighters in the world, parts the ocean by sheer force of will, and leads them to his perfect promised land, where they would be safe from the world's destruction.

Gill described this destruction to Yun as two opposing forces of the world becoming imbalanced. Gill's power lies in his own perfect balance of forces, so complete that it is evident in his own body, with the opposing forces of fire and ice separated in perfect symmetry. Gill appears to be able to inflict this balance on others, as demonstrated on Alex in Gill's 3rd Strike ending. This ending also displays him doing the same to the entire island where the promised land exists.

Fighting Style/Gameplay
Gill's fighting style involves the manipulation of fire and ice, and special moves including clotheslines, headbutts, and knee-drops, all of which are used as well by his brother, Urien. He also has several other powers at his disposal, also mentioned above.

As stated above, Gill has control over the elements of fire and ice to the point that they are perfectly balanced; this is reflected in a rather unique gameplay trait that changes the element of certain attacks (e.g. Pyrokinesis and Cryokinesis) based on the direction he is facing; this serves to demonstrate the CPS-3 board's power, and has no effect on damage and stun.

Gameplay-wise, Gill is much more powerful than every other character in Street Fighter III (save for Shin Akuma). He inflicts heavy damage, does an extremely large amount of stun, and can string together very long juggles. He can also inflict block damage with normal attacks, which makes it difficult to employ defensive strategies against him. This also makes it virtually impossible to achieve a perfect victory against Gill.

For this reason, he is often unselectable during regular game play. The only true way to play as a copy of Gill in the arcade version of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is to use Twelve's X.C.O.P.Y. However, in home versions of Street Fighter III, Gill can be selected after he has been defeated at least once by every fighter (or by purchasing him as DLC in Online Edition). He is even playable in Xbox Live matchmaking service games, providing players the opportunity to choose an unusually powerful character during head-to-head play; however, he is only usable in player-matches and is unselectable in ranked-matches.

Arguably the most dangerous gameplay element of Gill is his Resurrection Super Art. If his life bar is emptied by the player while his Super Art Gauge is completely filled, Gill will rise from the ground with his health gradually restoring itself. In 3rd Strike, Gill has the potential to restore all of his health. However, if the player manages to hit him in his rising animation frames, his recovery will stop. During his rising animation his opponent is constantly pushed away from him, making it difficult for a player or their projectiles to coming near.

In Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, he gains a Super Art called Meteor Strike, where twenty or so Cryokinesis and Pyrokinesis projectiles will fall from the sky onto the opposite halve of the screen from his position. This can eliminate 80% of an opponent's life bar on connection, but will not hit an opponent crouching directly next to him under normal circumstances.

In Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, he gained the Super Art Seraphic Wing, in which Gill will rise in the air and six wings form on his back and emit light waves from his body. Not only does this move cover the entire screen and do ludicrous damage (approximately 20-30% of your life bar when blocked, 20 hits and 90-100% if it hits depending on damage settings), it is absolutely impossible to evade, making Seraphic Wing Gill's most powerful ability. The only weakness is it has a decent wind up while he is rising, though after that, it is completely invulnerable. The Seraphic Wing cannot be parried. Furthermore, if he is hit out of it while he is rising into position, his Super Art meter will not be depleted (the game will not recognize it as being "used" until after the wings sprout on his back) and he can try it again. Gill also possesses the unique ability among Street Fighter III characters to use all three of his Super Arts in one battle, rather than selecting one at a time (with the exception of Akuma, who may use three of his five).

Trivia

 * A boss from the Captain Commando series known as Scumoside has the same powers and a similar moveset to that of Gill. Scumoside, however, resembles more of a demon, in contrast to Gill's angel-inspired design.
 * Gill is known as one of the first "supernatural" bosses in fighting games who is able to manipulate energies. Thus, he bears a strong similiarity to Algol of the Soul Calibur series.
 * Gill is the first known character to utilize ice-elemental attacks.
 * Gill is also the first character known to have attacks with properties that depend on the direction he is facing.
 * In Street Fighter X Tekken, the Tekken final boss Ogre has a DLC costume modeled after Gill.
 * In the Namco game Soul Calibur V, Algol's costume bears resemblance to Gill as well as Urien.
 * Also from Soul Calibur V, Elysium's Critical Edge functions similarily, and even looks like Gill's Seraphic Wing. Tabuu's Off Waves attack from Super Smash Bros. Brawl also resembles the Seraphic Wing, in both appearance and function.