Charlie Nash

"Are you man enough to fight with me?"

-Charlie

Charlie Nash, usually called Charlie in English and Nash (ナッシュ, Nasshu) in Japan, is a character from Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games. He is first introduced as a playable character in the original Street Fighter Alpha, but was already part of the series' backstory since Street Fighter II. Charlie is a first lieutenant in the United States Air Force. Charlie is first mentioned by name in the Street Fighter II storyline (first released in 1991), where he is the deceased war buddy of Guile, one of the playable characters in the game. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, Charlie sacrificed his own life in order to kill M. Bison; however, Bison survived, his soul taking over Rose's body, making her his temporary host. In the game, Guile enters the World Warrior tournament with the purpose of avenging his fallen friend's death. In Super Street Fighter II Turbo, a scene is shown of Guile visiting Charlie's grave.

Charlie would later be made into a playable character in Street Fighter Alpha, a prequel set before the Street Fighter II games. In the Alpha storyline, Charlie was the previous U.S. Martial Arts champion for two years (a record succeeded by Ken) and was also the one who taught Guile some of his fighting techniques (explaining their similar fighting styles). In the game, Charlie is given the duty to track down Bison and uncover Shadaloo soldiers in the American military army. In his ending, Charlie defeats Bison, but only to be struck from behind by him shortly afterwards.

Story
A member of a "secret elite military team", Charlie Nash co-piloted a special mission into Thailand along with his long-time friend, Guile. Their mission backfired and they were both captured. After their escape, Charlie became convinced that the enemy had had inside information from someone within the U.S. military and is determined to get to the bottom of it, seeking whoever had been behind the incident in Thailand.

Street Fighter Alpha 2
He encounters Rolento, who wants to know what Charlie's intentions are. When Charlie mentions about Shadaloo, Rolento decides to stop him. Charlie eventually tracks Bison down to Brazil and confronts him near a waterfall. After the battle, Charlie interrogates Bison. Before he could get a response, he is shot from the back by his intended backup helicopter and falls from the waterfall. Bison does not see Nash as a threat and does not bother to confirm whether he died.

Street Fighter Alpha 3
In Street Fighter Alpha 3, he has an ending where he actually survives battle and manages to destroy Shadaloo's secret base. In the console ports of Alpha 3, Guile is added to the playable roster as well. In Guile's storyline, he is ordered by his superiors to find Charlie, who has gone missing during a secret mission. His investigation leads him to M. Bison's Shadaloo base in Thailand. He and Charlie team up and, together with the Interpol investigator Chun Li, plant explosives in Bison's Shadaloo base in an in order to blow it up. While they set the charges however, Ryu engages Bison in a battle that leads to the destruction of Bison's body which forced him to regenarate in the Physco Drive. When Bison successfully regenerates Charlie holds him off so that Guile, Chun Li and Ryu are able to escape. They get out just before the whole of the Shadaloo base explodes and (supposedly) kills Charlie in the process

Though Charlie is not a playable character in Street Fighter IV, Guile believes he is still alive because no one found his body. Before the rival fight between Guile and Abel, it is presumed that Abel may know information about Charlie after Guile demonstrated a Sonic Boom. Guile wanted answers, but none were given. It is hinted at, but never confirmed, that Abel's adopted father, a retired soldier, may have been Charlie himself. It is more likely, however, that Abel saw Seth performing a Sonic Boom rather than Charlie (since Charlie is considered long dead in Street Fighter storyline while Seth shares an origin with Abel and he also utilizes Sonic Boom technique as his projectile attack). According to UDON comics, however, Charlie is the one who rescues Abel from burning Shadaloo facility. Some time later, when Abel wakes up from a coma suffering from amnesia, he finds himself adopted by one of Charlie's army buddies.

X-Men vs. Street Fighter features a different outcome for Charlie where he becomes Shadow (see below). This is a similar scenario to the one seen in UDON comics. Outside of fighting games, Charlie is a playable character in Cannon Spike.

Appearance
Charlie wears green cargo pants and a light yellow flak jacket. He has glasses which he takes off before a fight. He has an exaggerated hairstyle consisting of a large forelock of blond hair. This outfit (minus the forelock) is also Guile's alternate costume in Street Fighter IV.

Shadow

 * Main article: Shadow

The Marvel vs. Capcom series provided a twist on Charlie's fate. In his ending for X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Charlie is captured by Bison, who performs terrible experiments on him. Charlie's fate would be left up in the air until Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, where a secret character by the name of Shadow appeared. Shadow was a palette swap of Charlie, with nearly his entire body blacked out, and a white eye shining behind his glasses. He had all of Charlie's moves, but his attacks would set his opponent alight with blue Psycho-Power flames. His supers also had a brief pause where his eye would gleam before the move was pulled off (this made him somewhat unpopular, as the gleam could give an opponent enough time to block or avoid the attack). Shadow would later appear in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes as a secret helper character. However, by Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, Shadow seems to have reverted back to his original form, but by how is unknown. In addition, the ending for Chun Li also hinted that Bison intended to alter her in the same way, and another hidden character, called Shadow Lady, was a Shadow-altered Chun-Li. Shadow Lady's ending in the game also showed a similar fate befalling Jin Saotome.

Trivia

 * Charlie is known as Nash in Japanese iterations. This is due to the Japanese-English translation error in Street Fighter 2 and its upgrades where, in Guile's ending, Guile accuses Bison of killing his friend Charlie in Cambodia. In Japanese version of the game, however, there is no mentioning of Guile's friend's name nor Cambodia.
 * Due to Charlie's integral role as a character in Guile's backstory, many Street Fighter adaptations produced prior to the release of Street Fighter Alpha featured various depictions of Charlie.
 * In the comic adaptation of Street Fighter by UDON, Charlie's Japanese name is made into his surname, giving him the full name of Charlie Nash (this name was later canonized by Capcom as seen on Charlie's dog tags in Guile's intro in Street Fighter IV ).
 * With similar movesets to Guile, he is considered a "clone" of him, though with few differences (such as different Super Combos or slightly tweaked attacks). However, according to the story, Charlie is the one who taught Guile his moves.
 * Shadow is considered noncanonical to the main SF Storyline, despite being in the UDON comic.
 * Despite his grave being shown in a couple of games, Guile is still not convinced that he is dead yet since he stated his body wasn't found. (The grave, however, could simply be a memorial marker.)

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