Cody



Cody Travers is a video game character from both the Final Fight and Street Fighter series. He is a fifth-degree black belt in karate and has been training in martial arts since he was nine years old.

Story
In the original Final Fight, Cody teams up with Guy and The Mayor of Metro City, Mike Haggar to save Jessica (Cody's girlfriend and Haggar's daughter) from Belger, the leader of the Mad Gear gang. Cody takes on many of Mad Gear's worst thugs, and his penchant for fighting often leaves the others free to pursue the bosses of the area. In particular, he defeats the corrupt Edi. E whose sanctimonious role as a cop infuriates Cody. Although in the Gameboy Advance version, "Alpha Cody" vaguely remembers following a dog (Shiro) in the Bay Area to Abigail, it is considered canon that in the original arcade version Haggar sends Guy and Cody on ahead and has a massive showdown with the other wrestler. Although Cody doesn't want to go (because Abigail makes comments that Jessica is probably having a 'good time' with Belger), he is rewarded for the decision, as he winds up defeating Belger personally by defenestrating him at the top floor of Mad Gear headquarters. Cody is then celebrated as the hero of Metro City, but tells Jessica that he can't sit still while evil stalks the streets and soon thereafter leaves the city for parts unknown.

Cody reappeared in Final Fight Revenge. He has returned from a year of traveling to Metro City, where he learns that the Mad Gear is beginning to reform and Jessica has gone missing. Hoping to prove to himself that he is Jessica's hero, he again tries to come to her rescue, battling many thugs along the way, but sadly, would be set up for the crimes of Mad Gear member Poison and the many street fights he was taking part in allowed him to get arrested by Edi. E. It is unknown what happens to Jessica after this point.

In Street Fighter Alpha 3, Cody broke out of prison after a riot ensued. During his travels, he met up with Edi. E (who is trying to recapture him), Rolento, and even Guy once more. Rolento wanted him to join his militant movement, which Cody refused after a heated argument (it's unknown if they had actually fought). Guy, meanwhile, wanted to reform Cody and get him back on the good path, but Cody said that he was no hero, and basically lived for fighting. The two then had their own battle (Cody seemingly egging Guy on and welcoming it), but after the two calmed down, Guy accepted that his friend had to live his own life. The two separated afterwards when Guy asked if Cody would stay in Metro City, but Cody said he still had traveling to do. Guy bid him farewell, realizing that deep down inside, Cody is still a good person.

In between games, Guy committed a crime that Cody was willingly incarcerated for. The two have not spoken since. After Cody got out of prison, he retired from mainstream street fighting due to problems with his knees. Cody began training his little brother Kyle as a pit fighter. However, Kyle is slow to realize his potential, only stoking Cody's burning desire to fight once more.

In Final Fight: Streetwise, Cody begins using the designer drug glycolauric octanol, or "glo" (because according to Vito, Cody was becoming old and you can't survive in Metro city being old) which acts as a steroid, increasing Cody's strength, and relieving the pain on his knees. Unbeknownst to Kyle, Cody began fighting in mob boss Vito Bracca's fight club. Cody runs afoul of Vito and is kidnapped by the mob enforcer known as "The Stiff". Kyle searches for his older brother, and finds him heavily addicted to glo, and serving as the horseman of Death to the psychotic Fr. Bella. When Bella threatens to kill Kyle, Cody comes to his senses tackling Bella and falling with him off the roof of a church. After all is said and done, Cody beats his glo addiction, and states that due to the massive dosage of glo Bella gave him, his knees are feeling "better than ever".

Appearance
In his initial appearances, from Final Fight up to Street Fighter Alpha 3, he wore hand wraps, a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and tennis shoes. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, he appeared in a blue and white striped prison uniform with handcuffs alongside the aforementioned hand wraps and tennis shoes (though, oddly, he appears to be wearing the handcuffs by choice as he can freely remove them at will when he taunts). In Final Fight: Streetwise, Cody wears his classic original outfit, but with an orange prison shirt over the t-shirt.

Gameplay
In Street Fighter Alpha 3, Cody gained new special moves and super combos. Capcom used Joe's (of King of Fighters fame) fighting moves for Cody in Street Fighter Alpha 3. Cody makes reference to this enrichment of his fighting style in one of his SFA3 win quotes, stating that it is good to know "more than two moves" after such a long absence.

Techniques
His trademark attacks are the Bad Stone, in which he throws a normal rock with the force of other fighter's projectiles, the Criminal Upper, in which he throws an uppercut that releases a multi-hitting tornado that blocks projectiles, the Ruffian Kick, a charging kick attack that varies on attack level depending on which button used, and the ability to use a knife lying in the middle of the stage in all of his fights, which Cody can pick up by pressing crouch and two punch buttons. This is a throwback to Cody's favored weapon in Final Fight, in which he was the best character at using knives.

Cody's A-Ism Final Destruction super move is a reference to a glitch in the original Final Fight, in which a player could start an attack combo, deliver two hits, and turn around, instantly cancelling the combo, allowing the player to turn back and chain the same two hits. Repeated, this could act as an infinite combo attack. Cody mimics the attack, and accordingly, Final Destruction is a devastating move if it connects. In X-Ism, using this move replaces his moves with the original Final Fight moveset: tapping any button repeatedly performs his normal combo from Final Fight, and all his air attacks are replaced with the F+HK Crack Kick.

Final Fight: Streetwise sees an alternate version of Cody, dubbed "Death". As he was chosen by a Metro City priest, Father Bella, to be a living incarnation of one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. This version of Cody has a more demonic look to him due to the fact that Cody was drugged with a mysterious substance that was dubbed "The Glow" (In reference to how the eyes of the user looked after taking the drug) and has a version of the Criminal Upper that emits a greenish glow to it; in addition, he gains the ability to throw waves of green energy that travel along the ground like many projectiles in SNK fighting games, as well as the ability to rain green energy down around himself.

In Other Media
In the US Street Fighter cartoon, there is an episode entitled "Final Fight", loosely based on the events of the same game. Cody acts jealous and angry towards Ken because he thinks that Ken wants to steal Jessica away from him. Like in Final Fight, at the end Cody gets the girl. He sports dogtags and mumbles a lot in the show and is shown as a slow-witted, short-tempered guy with a hillbilly accent.