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, introduced in Street Fighter II. 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 UDON's 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 lack proficiency in the moves (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 and returns to his family. However, like most of the SF2 endings, canonicity of this one is very questionable.

Pre-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 wreaking 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.

Capcom vs. SNK series
Guile appeared as a playable character in Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000, Mark of the Millennium 2001/EO, SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium and SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.

Capcom Fighting Evolution
Guile also appeared playable in Capcom Fighting Evolution.

Street Fighter X Tekken
Guile is a playable character in Street Fighter X Tekken, where he is paired with Abel. He is ordered to secure Pandora when he is called by Abel to get a ride to the South Pole to investigate Pandora, which Guile allows since they are on the same path. Abel is given the command to not blow their cover, but Abel almost blows their cover on multiple occasions, and later on, before their rival battle against Heihachi and Kuma, Able puts their information of Pandora at risk for Kuma, who Abel then states he wants to simply pet, which Guile is shocked at. Heihachi, on the other hand, assumes they plan to eat Kuma - a running joke in the game.

Once they defeat Ogre get to Pandora, Abel is mesmerized by Pandora's beauty, while Guile attempts to pull him back, saying they don't know whats inside Pandora, when the box opens and creates several "alien" copies of Kuma, which makes Abel come even closer, at which point Guile appears to give up on bringing back Abel and head back to the U.S.

Guile's ending after the credits shows he becomes world famous, and he appears to enjoy it all. However, due to Abel's actions during their journey to Pandora, Guile swears to never work with partners again - coincidentally, Abel's ending has him planning to call on Guile once more.

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 SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos. 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 United States flag tattoos on each arm, following standard United States military protocol having the stars on the left hand side, giving the illusion that one of the flags is backwards.

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, one of Guile's alternate costumes is Charlie's costume.

Personality
Guile is a tough man, both physically and mentally, who takes pride in family, and is a loving husband and father to his family. A stoic man at heart, Guile's calm and emotionless exterior actually hides the rage within him after Charlie's death.

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.

In Street Fighter X Tekken, it is revealed that he is scared of bears.

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. Somersault Justice 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 Hyper Combo 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 Combo 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 YouTube and several other media sources started making videos that feature Guile's theme. The meme is appropriately titled "Guile's Theme goes with everything".

Trivia

 * According to his bio, Gunloc from Capcom's Slam Masters series is rumored to be related to a famous street fighter. Gunloc is seen sporting a military jacket and utilizes such attacks as Sonic Fist therefore it is pretty safe to assume that 'relative' is supposed to be Guile. Needless to say that the two also share distinctive visual traits.
 * 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 from the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure manga series.
 * Guile is one of the eleven playable Street Fighter characters who are married or in a romantic relationship.
 * 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 and 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 as 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?!". Either that or the quote became "Are you man enough to fight with 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".
 * This phrase also returns in Street Fighter X Tekken as Ken's win quote against Guile "You should go home and be a family man... Hey, I guess it applies to me too now".
 * 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 anime series 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, all the while fighting in Ryu's stage.
 * He also makes a cameo in a Miniclip game called Assault Course.
 * He makes yet another cameo in Episode 10 of anime series Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. He is seen riding in a truck and eating burger in the music video portion of the episode.
 * Guile 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".
 * Zero's theme in Mega Man X3 bears a little resemblance to Guile's theme in Street Fighter II.
 * Lt.Surge from the Pokemon series seems to bear a similarity to Guile, both being American, having served in the army, and wearing similar outfits. In Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, his sprite and artwork bear a closer resemblance, and he is even seen with shades.



Stage Theme
thumb|left|300pxthumb|300px|leftthumb|300px|leftthumb|300px|leftthumb|300px|left