Charlie Nash

"Until every sin and atrocity is punished by justice, my duty will not be complete!"

- Charlie (Street Fighter Alpha 3)

"If you try to stop me... I'll have to kill you."

- Charlie (Street Fighter V)

Charlie Nash (チャーリー ナッシュ), usually called Charlie in English and Nash (ナッシュ) in Japan, is a character from Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games. Charlie is a First Lieutentant in the United States Marine Corps, typically flying with his VTOL Harrier, and fights injustice alongside his friend Guile.

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. Charlie was canonically introduced in the Street Fighter Alpha series, which takes place between the events of the original Street Fighter and SFII.

Biography
According to supplementary materials, Charlie Nash's past saw him as a young Marines enrolled university student with a major in biology and an interest in martial arts. His career eventually saw him climb the ranks, and becoming skilled enough to win the Pan American Martial Arts Tournament.

Soon to be a member of a "secret elite military team", Charlie 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 was convinced that the enemy 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.

As suggested by the fighter planes seen in the background of his stages, Charlie may not be a member of the US Air Force, but rather the United States Marine Corps Aviation, as that branch uses the AV-8B Harrier II and the F/A-18C Hornet, which are seen in Charlie's stages throughout the Alpha series. Also, the Marine Corps has its own fighting style called MCMAP.

Name
Charlie is known as Nash in Japanese iterations. This is due to the Japanese-English translation error in Street Fighter II and its upgrades where, in Guile's ending, Guile accuses Bison of killing his friend Charlie in Cambodia. In the Japanese version of the game, however, there is no mentioning of Guile's friend's name nor Cambodia.

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.

Appearance
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.

Charlie wears green cargo pants with boots of the same color and a light yellow flak jacket. He has glasses, which he takes off before a fight, and an exaggerated hairstyle consisting of a large forelock of blond hair. The glasses are not necessary for him to see, and appear to be purely cosmetic.

His outfit (minus the forelock) is also Guile's alternate costume in Street Fighter IV.

Charlie wears a similar outfit in Street Fighter V, however his body is now covered in grotesque staples and patches of his skin are discolored, implying he has had numerous skin grafts since his mission in Street Fighter Alpha 3. His right forearm and hand, right shoulder, and the front-right portion of his skull including his eye, are crudely replaced and stapled up with transplanted dark skinned body parts. Another curious feature includes the green stone embedded in his forehead. His flak jacket is now brown with golden yellow upper linings and his cargo pants and boots are also brown.

Personality
Charlie is a calm and confident fighter - sometimes to a fault - with a strong sense of justice. Charlie has a crime-fighting attitude akin to his friend Guile, though more out of righteousness rather than revenge; even so, he sometimes acts reckless. While normally he acts in a professional manner, he lets his emotions get the better of him at times.

In Street Fighter V, Charlie's dialog also shows him to be darker, sinister, and most likely brainwashed.

M. Bison
Charlie has a strong hatred of Shadaloo and M. Bison, and wishes to end the evil organization and its ruler once and for all. Bison supposedly killed Charlie. This has led to Guile swearing vengeance over his disappearance.

Guile
Charlie is Guile's superior officer and close friend. Charlie is also the one who taught Guile his current fighting style. He also greatly values Guile; in order to save him and Chun-Li, he sacrificed his own life in a vain effort to end Bison.

Chun-Li
Charlie also has a close friendship with Chun-Li, as he risked his life to save hers.

Early Life
Charlie's fierce sense of justice was ever present even at a young age. Sometime before the series, Charlie eventually discovered several of his fellow officers were pushing drugs during their service, and his investigations lead him to discover their connections with Shadaloo. Much to his dismay however, Nash also had found that the infrastructural corruption and grasp the criminal organization reached even to his superiors, who dismissed the suspects' possession of narcotics and pushed their power to illegal limits. Not going down without a fight, Charlie pushed his pursuit further as a lone wolf to bring them to justice.

As his investigation into the conspiracy continued, he eventually gained Chun-Li's acquaintance as a connection to the ICPO and a valuable ally.

Street Fighter Alpha and Alpha 2
Charlie is given a mission to track down Bison and uncover Shadaloo soldiers in the American military army. In his SFA ending, he defeats Bison. As he calls for backup, Bison attacks him from behind and apparently kills him. In SFA2, Charlie encounters Rolento, who wants to know what Charlie's intentions are. When Charlie mentions about Shadaloo, Rolento decides to stop him.

Charlie's ending sees him eventually tracking Bison down to Brazil and confronting him near a waterfall. After the battle, Charlie interrogates Bison. Before he can 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. These endings, however, can hardly be considered canon since Charlie reappears very much alive later, in Street Fighter Alpha 3.

Street Fighter Alpha 3
In Street Fighter Alpha 3, Charlie's fate has two outcomes. The central plot is that Charlie supposedly goes AWOL; however, he is really undercover to investigate Shadaloo and its connection to the military. The latter ending is what actually happened according to the plot of the series; the first is considered an alternate "what if" ending.


 * In his main ending, found by completing the campaign mode as Charlie, he tracks down Bison, survives battle and manages to destroy Shadaloo's secret base.


 * In the updated 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 track Charlie. After realizing Charlie's intentions, Guile teams up with Charlie in order to destroy Bison's Psycho Drive, while Bison was regenerated after Ryu destroyed his body in the process. Guile escapes, while Charlie stays behind to hold off Bison and sacrifice his own life in order to destroy M. Bison permanently, though it proved unsuccessful.

Charlie's apparent death encourages Guile to avenge him in Street Fighter II. In Super Street Fighter II Turbo, a scene is shown of Guile visiting Charlie's grave.

Street Fighter IV
Charlie was rumored to be playable in Street Fighter IV; one of All Games Network's articles hinted at one of the new characters being a Sonic Boom user, who turned out to be Seth.

Story-wise, 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's more likely, however, that Abel saw Seth performing a Sonic Boom rather than Charlie, since Charlie is considered long dead to this point in the Street Fighter storyline, while Seth shares an origin with Abel, and also utilizes Sonic Boom technique as his projectile attack.

Street Fighter V
In the gameplay trailer presented at the end of the 2014 Capcom Cup, Charlie was hinted at through a quick sequence, appearing at the trailer's end with a glowing green circle on his forehead. A small portion of his original theme from Street Fighter Alpha plays briefly when he appears.

Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono also dressed up as Charlie to further promote his appearance in the game.

On February 24th, 2015, an official trailer featuring Charlie (simply called Nash) was released on the official Street Fighter YouTube channel where he was seen fighting both Chun-Li and Ryu. His moveset, though retaining some original moves, has undergone a drastic change as he now utilizes teleportation and a leaping tackle. His appearance is also different, he is covered in stiches which are to retain dark skin patches all over his body.

Marvel vs. Capcom games
Charlie was one of the playable characters in X-Men vs. Street Fighter. In his ending, he is captured by M. 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 is a palette swap of Charlie, with nearly his entire body blacked out, and a white eye shining behind his glasses. He has all of Charlie's moves, but his attacks set his opponent alight with blue Psycho Power flames. His Hyper Combos also have a brief pause where his eye gleams 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 to his original form, but exactly 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 fellow Capcom character Jin Saotome.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
Charlie was planned to be a playable character (alongside Ibuki and M. Bison) in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, but was dropped due to time constraints.

Cannon Spike
Outside of fighting games, Charlie is one of the playable characters (and one of the three Street Fighter characters, the other ones being Cammy and Vega) in the multi-directional shooter game Cannon Spike.

Capcom Fighting Evolution
Charlie made a cameo appearance (along with fellow Street Fighter characters Dhalsim, Ken, Sean and Dudley) in Pyron's ending.

Street Fighter X Tekken
Steve Fox uses Charlie's outfit as his Swap Costume in Street Fighter X Tekken.

UDON comics
His story in UDON's Street Fighter comics mixes in a few elements from Marvel vs. Capcom.

Charlie is captured by M. Bison and, as dictator's infamous Psycho Power is forced into his body, he witnesses Dorai's demise at the hands of the Dolls. Brainwashed into becoming agent Shadow of Shadaloo, Charlie is assigned to monitor those who are percieved as a threat to Bison's criminal empire. After Vega's failed attempt at assasinating Ken and his fiancee Eliza, Shadow is instructed to eliminate Guile and Chun Li who were closing in on Bison. He confronts the two and emerges victorious, but, before he is to execute them, Guile throws him his dogtags and reminds him of the past and his true identity. Confused, Shadow flees the scene deserting the Shadaloo ranks in the process.

Upon reflection, Charlie realizes that he was nothing but a mindless puppet in the service of a global crime syndicate. He joins his former army buddy Guile and interpol agent Chun Li in their mission to put an end to Shadallo schemes. As he briefs in Chun Li of her father's fate, Bison arrives at the scene and guns Charlie down.

Bison proceedes to effortlessly defeat Guile and Chun Li, but, before he is able to finish them off, injured Charlie intervenes and strikes him down with a Psycho Powered Sonic Boom. Charlie discloses that, in order to turn him into the Bison's mindless drone, Shadaloo scientists infused him with dictator's own Psycho Power which gave him great strength but deprived him of his free will. With his new powers under his command, Charlie goes on to fight Bison who, after initial surprise, quickly regains composure and defeats Nash. In a final, drastic effort, badly wounded Charlie performs Somersault Justice and cuts down the cliff on which the battle took place plummeting both Bison and himself into the abyss.

Charlie is never seen again, except in Abel's flashback. Here, Charlie is the one who rescues Abel from a 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. Since Seth and the other numbers were completed after Abel escaped, and Seth somehow learned the one-handed Sonic Boom by the time he collected all the abilities he wanted, it is highly possible that Charlie was captured by Shadaloo or S.I.N. This might be canon, since Guile, according to his win quote against Abel in SSFIV, notices that his friend was the one to rescue Abel.

Two bonus comics focus on Charlie. One of them shows Charlie rescuing Guile who was held hostage by enemy forces; the other shows him sparring with Guile in a military base.

Street Fighter Alpha manga
In Masaomi Kanzaki's manga adaptation of Street Fighter II, Guile is directly responsible for Charlie's death. Years before the events of the manga, Bison uses Charlie and other members of Guile's unit as guinea pigs for a mind-controlling substance. Charlie went insane during a mission and began attacking unarmed villagers, causing Guile to kill him. Charlie is shown in the manga as a silhouette with an insane smile.

Street Fighter cartoon
The American animated Street Fighter TV series, which aired from 1995 to 1997, adapts Blanka's origins from the live-action film into the series, thus merging Blanka and Charlie's characters into one as well. The episode "Eye of the Beholder" features Blanka reverting to his human form and he is given clothing similar to the ones Charlie wears in the Alpha games, but with Blanka's color scheme (a green vest and brown cargo pants). However, Charlie still retains Blanka's height and voice, and he's a lot slender than Blanka. In addition, Charlie is originally blond and blue-eyed in the original video game series. In the animated series, he has medium brown skin, black hair, and dark brown eyes.

Street Fighter II V
In Street Fighter II V anime Charlie is referred as Nash. He is Guile's best friend, who has served alongside of him in several combat situations. Nash dies during the mission to rescue Ken from Bison's fortress. Since the show was produced before the development of Street Fighter Alpha, he does not resemble his in-game counterpart at all. In the show, he holds an impressive similar appearance to Jean Reno. While Nash is known as "Charlie" in the English localization of the games, Nash retains his Japanese name for the English dub of the show (except in one scene where Guile calls him "Charlie", implying that his full name is Charlie Nash).

Street Fighter live-action movie
Charlie is amalgamated with the character of Blanka to form the character Carlos "Charlie" Blanka, a friend of Colonel Guile and a soldier in his unit, who is taken prisoner in Bison's Shadaloo compound. His hair is changed to black for this film. When Bison discovers the friendship between Charlie and Guile through one of Guile's threats, he sends Charlie to be brainwashed and mutated by Dr. Dhalsim (Bison's unwilling scientist in this film) to become the green-skinned, red-haired killing machine known simply as Blanka. Dhalsim, however, secretly changes Blanka's mental programming to prevent him from becoming a killer. During a scuffle between Dhalsim and the lab guard, Blanka is released prematurely and his first act is to murder the guard to save Dhalsim. He later attacks Guile when he sneaks into the lab, but recognises him as his friend. He is almost shot by Guile in order to end his suffering, but Dhalsim stops him on the grounds that Blanka is essentially still himself. Blanka and Dhalsim later fight Bison's forces together when the AN army attacks Bison's base. In the climax, however, Blanka refuses to return to civilisation with Guile in his state, choosing to perish in the explosion of Bison's base along with a repentant Dhalsim. In the video game based on the movie, Blanka is a playable character, though in his mutated incarnation with the original Blanka's moveset. His ending in the home version reveals that he and Dhalsim both survived the explosion and Dhalsim eventually reverted him to his human form.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
Charlie Nash in this film is an Interpol agent, when both him and Royal Thai Police detective Maya Sunee mee are called to investigate the murder of several crime syndicate families in Bangkok. Nash informs Maya that the Shadaloo perpetrated these crimes.

Gameplay
Charlie is the one who originally taught Guile his current fighting style. Because of this, Charlie uses the same fighting style but with some few differences.

In Street Fighter V, as seen from the February 2015 trailer, Charlie's moveset now includes powers similar to M. Bison, with the ability to teleport, and his wind like ki also emanates a dark Psycho Power like hue to a few of his attacks. He used many of Shadow's moves, including the Final Mission. He seems to be the same character as Shadow (his Shadaloo-brainwashed alter ego).

Quotes

 * See: Charlie Nash/Quotes

Trivia

 * In the Mega Man Remix and the Mega Man Maniax mangas by Ariga Hitoshi, Charlie briefly appears as a news caster in several chapters. Instead of going by his Japanese name of Nash, he is simply called Charlie.


 * Capcom character Dave the scientist, who appears as one of Devilotte's assistants in Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness, has a minor similar hair and facial appearance to Charlie.

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