Guile

"Go home and be a family man!"

- Guile

Guile (ガイル, Gairu) is a video game character in Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games. Although his role in the Street Fighter story was at first minimal, he is considered the third leading and best male character in the series, after Ryu and Ken, largely due to his effectiveness as a character and his popularity.

In the live action Street Fighter movie, Guile is given the full name of William F. Guile, with the military rank of colonel. Although Capcom did not canonize the name, it was also used in the US Street Fighter cartoon that was loosely based on the movie. However, in the Udon Street Fighter comic book, Guile is the character's first name. According to the official Street Fighter website, Guile has the USAF rank of Major at the time of Street Fighter IV.

Story
When Guile was a trainee in the United States Air Force, he befriended his superior officer, Charlie Nash and asked him to teach him in his unique form of fighting, which Charlie agreed to do. Guile learned the style, but his hot temper caused him to be not as proficient in the moves as Charlie was (shown in how Charlie can shoot Sonic Booms with one hand while Guile needs both.)

Street Fighter Alpha 3
In the Street Fighter continuity, Guile was not introduced to the series until the events of Street Fighter Alpha 3, where he is addressed as "Commander". Guile is sent by the United States Air Force to look for his senior teammate and best friend Charlie, who has gone missing during a secret investigation. Guile's search eventually leads him to the Interpol investigator Chun-Li, who warns him not to follow Charlie due to the danger involved. Guile demonstrates his fighting ability, and assures Chun-Li that he will not let their friend come to harm. He eventually finds the Shadaloo base in Thailand. Guile informs Charlie that they do not need to be there any longer, as an aerial bombardment will begin in an hour. Charlie, however, insists that M. Bison will escape, and they come to blows. The sinister and powerful Bison appears and attacks the two Airmen, but is no match for their combined prowess. He is forced to retreat, calling a gunship to keep them pinned down and cover his escape. The two give chase, and follow him into the base, deciding that Bison's source of power, the Psycho Drive must be destroyed. Chun-Li then appears and informs them that the bombardment has been called off, surmising that Bison has somehow used his influence. She goes on to tell them that she has set explosives in an attempt to destroy the base, but is unsure if they'll be enough. As she rushes to escape, Charlie and Guile decide to set explosives around the Psycho Drive to ensure that if nothing else, it at least will be destroyed. As they set their charges, M. Bison fought with Ryu and his allies in a epic battle. In the end, Ryu defeated him, destroying his body temporarily and forcing Bison to regenerate in the Psycho Drive. Bison successfully regenerated his body then Charlie convinces Guile to escape while he holds Bison off, and Guile escaped right before the base explodes, with Charlie and Bison presumably caught in the blast. Chun-Li and Ryu eventually find Guile standing on a mountain, and Chun-Li says that Charlie may perhaps be alive somewhere, just as she believes that her father may be. Guile agrees, and says that he will continue to believe in Charlie.

Street Fighter II
Holding Bison responsible for the death of his best friend, he seemingly dedicates his whole life to exacting revenge on Bison, who has somehow survived the explosion. A court case against the Shadaloo dictator fails when Bison bribes all the judges to let him go free. Bison by this time wants revenge on Guile, Chun-Li, and many other people who had hindered his syndicate's efforts. To this end, he sets up the second World Warrior tournament to trap them, among other reasons. Guile, for his part, takes the bait, deserting his wife and daughter to pursue the vendetta.

Guile's ending depicts him having Bison at his mercy and reminding him of Charlie. Bison shows no regret and taunts Guile to kill him. Guile hesitates and is interupted by arrival of his wife, Julia (called Jane in SF2 series) and daughter, Amy, who pursuade him to give up on his revenge and return home. Guile, refusing to become a murderer like Bison, concludes that he feels like he's waking up from a long nightmare. However, like most of the SF2 endings, canonicity of this one is very questionable.

Early Super Street Fighter IV
Some time after the Fall of Shadaloo, Chun-Li, Guile and Cammy are summoned to a theme park to stop the rampage of S.I.N operative Juri, who is weraking extreme havoc. While Guile and Cammy try to evacuate the civillians still trapped, Chun-Li faces Juri just as she excecutes a rogue S.I.N agent and a woman. Juri seriously injures Chun-Li but before she can execute her, she is forced to flee when Guile and Cammy arrive due to her artificial eye malfunctioning.

Guile and Cammy later act on annoymous intelligence and track Juri down to an old Shadaloo base which houses the former 12 Dolls. When they arrived, Juri had already defeated all 12 dolls and had just finished off Juli and Juni. A fierce fight ensues and Guile is eventually heavily incapitated by Juri, leaving Cammy to face her alone. Guile later informs Chun-Li about their failure to apprehend Juri.

Street Fighter IV
Though Shadaloo is seemingly gone, Guile is restless and still believes it possible that Charlie may be alive since Charlie's body was never recovered. Guile demands of his superiors to allow him to continue the search. His commanding officer refuses, and Guile tenders his resignation. Guile is surprised when his superior ignores the resignation, assigning Guile to the investigation of S.I.N., an organization with alleged ties to Shadaloo. Guile is at first incredulous that Shadaloo lives on without Bison, but soon takes to his new assignment with zeal. Recruiting Chun-Li to the investigation, the two enter a new tournament organized by S.I.N., in the hopes of infiltrating its headquarters. Over the course of the tournament he encounters a mysterious French fighter named Abel, who seems to recognize Guile's Sonic Boom attack. Since only he and Charlie know this attack, Guile comes to the conclusion that Abel has information on Charlie's ultimate fate, and immediately starts pressing him for answers on where he saw the Sonic Boom before. Abel is completely unwilling to share such sensitive information with a stranger who could easily be a spy, and they exchange blows. It is currently unknown who won the fight.

Later, in the S.I.N. headquarters, Guile recovers important data while Chun-Li is trapped by Vega, with the base's self-destruction imminent. En route to rescuing Chun-Li, Guile is ambushed by one of Bison's cyborgs (in the same mold as Seth). Abel arrives and takes on the cyborg instead, telling Guile where Chun-Li is and telling him to hurry. Exactly how Chun-Li is then rescued is unclear - Gen seems to have protected her from a collapse and then broken free from the rubble, but is nowhere to be seen later as Guile and Abel watch the base explode, with an unconscious Chun-Li in Guile's arms.

After these events, Guile returns to Charlie's grave, placing a beer bottle on it as a way of buying his old friend a drink. He tells the grave that although S.I.N.'s plans have been foiled, he knows that he hasn't seen the last of Shadaloo just yet.

Appearance
Early Street Fighter II sketches and notes suggest that Guile was developed specifically to appeal to American fans. His physical appearance is strikingly different from the many Asian characters in the Street Fighter series, with light blue eyes, a chiseled jaw, and a particularly tall flattop haircut. The length of Guile's hair varies greatly from appearance to appearance. It is relatively realistic in Street Fighter II, and impossibly tall in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom. Capcom source books suggest that Guile's famous hairdo is styled with a special-order army hair spray to keep it up (though he ends up fixing it quickly after a match).

Another way Guile's image differs from the Asian combatants in the series is his flag of the United States flag birth marks on each arm, which is a retcon from the initial one he had in Street Fighter II artwork (due to sprites in most video games being forced to be symmetrical).

Finally, Guile's military fatigues complete his all-American look. The image of the uniformed American Airman is well-known in Japan due to the number of United States Armed Forces bases present in that country.

Guile wears Charlie's dog tag alongside his own, as he searches for Bison. In Street Fighter IV, Guile's alternate costume is Charlie's costume.

Personality
Guile is quite tough, both physically and mentally. He has survived a lot, and is still standing, as well as still fighting). Although loyal to the military and the United States, Guile is extremely persistent. He is so driven to find out who betrayed him in the jungles of Thailand, and to try and get at M. Bison, that he would even put that over his duties. Despite this, he is a truly loving husband and father to his family.

Gameplay
Guile is generally considered a top tier character in the Street Fighter II series. He is considered by most players as the best character after Ken and Ryu. Guile is the first of many characters to introduce the "charge" gameplay style, in that a player must hold in a direction for a few seconds and press in the other afterwards to pull off a special move. This type of gameplay can make Guile a defensive character. Because of the short lag after his Sonic Boom, though, he can follow it and use his various forward-moving attacks to pressure the enemy, which makes him offensively very powerful as well.

Techniques
Guile's two primary Special moves are the Sonic Boom (Projectile based attack) and Flash Kick (an anti-air attack). Both moves require a charge motion. Throughout the series, these have been Guile's main special attacks and has been known to have more Super Attacks than special moves. The "Sonic Hurricane" is not a long-range projectile but if it connects, it traps the opponents in and does multiple hits. Double Flash is basically his Flash Kick with two more kicks added in. It acts like Ken's Shoryureppa in that it performs three Somersaults. It is also considered one of Guile's most difficult moves to perform. In Capcom vs. SNK he gained another Super Move called "Total Wipeout" which allows him to do consecutive punches that end with a final Backhand punch that knocks the opponent away. This move is similar to a super move he had in the EX series called "Opening Gambit", which also features consecutive punches but ends with a modified side Somersault kick instead of a backhand. His Meteor Combo in the EX series is called "Sonic Typhoon" which involves him shooting out a giant Sonic Boom tornado at his opponents, inflicting a heavy amount of damage. His Ultra Combos in Super Street Fighter IV are Flash Explosion (the Double Flash followed by one more kick to meet the opponent as they fall out of the air) and Sonic Hurricane.

In Popular Culture
Guile's theme is so popular that users started making videos that starts with Guile's theme. The meme is appropriately titled "Guile's Theme goes with everything".

Trivia

 * There are several non-Street Fighter-related games with character creation modes which include the choice of using Guile's hair, allowing a character based off him to be able to be made. These include most WWE Smackdown vs. Raw installments and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.


 * Guile's design was inspired by Rudolph Stroheim of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.


 * Guile only listens to country music, according to his win quote against Dee Jay in Super Street Fighter IV.


 * Guile is apparently quite fond of chocolate, as learned by rival fighter C. Viper.


 * Guile is one of the six characters from Street Fighter IV (the others being Cammy, C. Viper, Chun-Li, Ryu & Seth) to have second rivals in Super SFIV. His second rival is M. Bison.
 * Guile's wife is called Jane in SF2 series. Her name is later altered in Julia.




 * A common developer oversight in Guile's early appearances was in one of his win quotes, "Go home and be a family man!" and "Are you man enough to fight me?!". He would say that randomly whenever he won a fight against any fighter, including Chun-Li. In later versions this was addressed; In Super SF2, the quote was tweaked to "Are you bad enough to fight me?!".
 * Interestingly, Guile's "Go home and be a family man" quote returns in Super Street Fighter IV, as his win quote against Ken. Another reference to the quote itself can be seen in Guile's win quote against Ibuki in which he tells her to "Go home and be a school girl".


 * Early official artwork shows Guile having only one tattoo, though in-game, due to character sprites' left and right sights being mirrored, he has them on both sides. In later years after this was noticed, the artwork shows him with tattoos on both shoulders.
 * Ironically, this makes the tattoo correct and incorrect, as the U.S. soldiers sport a backwards American flag on their uniforms in the same location as Guile's tattoo. (symbolic of the fact that a flag carried during a charge into battle would appear backwards as it flew behind its pole). This is contrary to the belief that the "correct" sprite is of Guile facing towards the right, which shows a forward-facing flag.


 * In the Street Fighter Movie, his full name is "William Guile".


 * Guile has become a popular character to cameo in various media:
 * Guile has a cameo in Final Fight 2 during the boss fight with Freddie in France. He can be seen in the background, cheering him on.
 * He also has a cameo in Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law.
 * He makes a cameo in the first episode of Lucky Star, under the name of Foreigner. He was asking Tsukasa for directions, but Konata thought he was threatening to kidnap her, so she fought with him and won, using similar moves to Ryu.
 * He also makes a cameo in a Miniclip game called Assault Course.
 * He makes a cameo in X Men vs. Street Fighter in Charlie's ending under the name "Charlie's friend." He is set to find out who was behind this, beginning the events of Guile's story in Street Fighter II.
 * Guile's theme music in Street Fighter Alpha 3 bears a resemblance to A-ha's song "Take On Me".

Stage Theme
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