Gill

"The mark of my dignity shall scar thy DNA."

- Gill

Gill (ギル) is the main antagonist and the main boss of the Street Fighter III series. He is voiced by Bruce Robertson in New Generation and 2nd Impact and by Lawrence Bayne in 3rd Strike. In Street Fighter V, he is voiced by Liam O'Brien in English and by Fumihiko Tachiki in Japanese.

Appearance
Gill's appearance is characterized by his half red and half blue muscular body and flowing blonde hair. He bears a distinct and intentional resemblance to a Greek God.

Gill's asymmetrical color scheme was a device for Capcom to display the graphical power of the CPS-3 board. In previous 2D Street Fighter games, details such as Sagat's eye-patch would switch sides depending on which way the character was facing. Originally, Gill was to be colored black and white. It was later decided to color him red and blue, to better show off the game's graphical power. The black and white palette is used as a secondary color. Additionally, Gill was designed wearing a loin cloth to show off as much of his red and blue hues as possible.

The sprite of Gill's secretary, Kolin, has an intentionally asymmetrical haircut, so, like Gill, she appears graphically impressive when rotating from facing one direction to another, instead of being a mirrored sprite. In 3rd Strike, a special glow has been programmed to constantly render his sprite in both positive and negative coloration, further showing off the CPS-3 board's impressive graphical power. He is then known as, Omega Gill.

In his pre-fight intro in New Generation and 2nd Impact, Gill wears a long gray robe. In 3rd Strike, he wears a light brown and red hooded long cloak with a long blue green robe and matching brown sandals.

Concept
Gill is physically modeled after the Greek Gods of antiquity. His personality comes from various Judeo-Christian sources. Gill's name might come from the Hebrew Gilead, meaning "eternal joy". It is also a common Sikh name.

He is similar to Jesus of Nazareth in his claims of being the messiah, the savior of mankind. In that respect, Urien, his jealous brother, can be compared to Judas Iscariot; Urien's nickname in the Japanese Street Fighter III manual even refers to Judas. Gill's Resurrection technique may also be based on Jesus' resurrection from the dead, and the posture Gill assumes during this technique, suspended in the air with his arms outward, evokes the image of Christ during crucifixion. Gill's Seraphic Wing technique refers to seraphim, the six-winged, highest order of angels in Jewish and Christian beliefs; when Gill performs Seraphic Wing, he takes on the six-winged angelic form, "offering" salvation. Finally, in Gill's 3rd Strike ending, he parts the ocean and leads his people to the promised land, likening him to Moses.

In addition to his Greek God and Hebrew Abrahamic influences, Gill was also envisioned as a "Greek Pankration like Gandhi" by Akiman during conception of his character, and some of his aspects were lifted from the henshin hero character Android Kikaider.His blonde flowing hair was further mentioned to evoke the concept of the "Nordic Aryan Superman" and that of "Norse Gods in the face of Ragnarok."

Personality
He is presented as a cult leader who would become a benevolent monarch over his worthy subjects. Worldly, majestic, and charismatic in his pursuits, Gill is not without flaws however, being haughty, arrogant, and even outright draconic and elitist at worst, with his cult using immoral ways such as kidnapping, coercion, DNA manipulation, brainwashing, and extreme force in a similar way to Shadaloo in order to select their chosen people, and they have been behind a majority of the world's events and criminal organizations to attain their ends. Gill is also not above murdering innocent people to compete his ultimate ambition.

As far as achievements go, Gill often takes a loss, sometimes in order to fulfill a much bigger goal; other times, he does so out of respect for his foe's fighting ability.

Background
Gill is the leader of a mysterious cult-like organization called the Illuminati (also known as the Secret Society) which has manipulated world events for over 2000 years, and is dedicated to the salvation of mankind, and creation of a new utopia. Supplementary material notes that, unlike the other candidates for the leadership of the Illuminati, who are kidnapped and brainwashed into doing their bidding, Gill and his younger brother Urien were born to parents who were long time members of the cult. Both their parents are said to have been candidates to the presidency of the cult; being holders of Ph.D(s) in their respective fields. It is noted that their mother, an olympic level athlete and a doctorate in Sports Dynamics was especially a favourite to become the President.

The Illuminati had genetically enhanced Gill in his youth, increasing his strength and speed so that he could participate in an intense hand-to-hand combat training program. Gill became the top student out of the hundreds of enhanced warriors involved, surpassing even his own jealous brother, Urien.

According to Illuminati legend, the soul of the previous Illuminati Emperor would be reincarnated into a new body after death; the organization determined, through the results of their special training program, that the latest incarnation of the Emperor was Gill. Therefore, at the age of 22, Gill was appointed President of the Illuminati. Urien was overlooked due to his emotional instability, and appointed vice president under Gill. Later, Urien challenged Gill for the presidency of the Illuminati and succeeded. Urien then became the president of the Illuminati. However, Gill was not demoted - in fact, he was promoted out of the title of president and became the new Emperor and messiah.

Street Fighter V
Gill was seen in the ending of A Shadow Falls. Helen, who is actually his secretary Kolin, informs him about Shadaloo's destruction and M. Bison's defeat at the hands of Ryu. Gill states that despite a different ending, he knows of his own plans and starts to go somewhere.

Street Fighter III series
Under Gill, the Illuminati continued to gain power and resources, acquiring capital and estates through various business transactions. When the organization came into possession of a certain Jaguar automobile from the father of a British heavyweight boxing champion known as Dudley, Gill himself was challenged by the pugilist in order to have the automotive heirloom returned. Gill, being respectful of powerful fighting ability, agreed to return the precious car, as its worth was insignificant compared to the coffers of his organization.

Sometime before the Third World Warrior Tournament, Gill had fought against a military martial arts instructor by the name of Tom, and had done so to the point of nearly crippling him and sending him off to the hospital. Unbeknownst to him, Tom's disciple and ward, Alex, distraught and angered, had entered the Third World Warrior Tournament to exact revenge on Gill for what he had done to Tom.

The Illuminati continued to conduct genetic enhancements and other intrusive mutations on humans, either kidnapping their subjects or creating and/or enhancing them artificially, in a development series known as the G-Project. These experiments resulted in the creation of the super soldiers known as Necro and Twelve, enhanced beings designed to carry out the bidding of the Illuminati (though Necro went rogue). This project also led to the abduction of a young girl who was under the care of the ICPO agent Chun-Li.

With the aid of his faithful secretary Kolin (pronounced "Colleen") and despite his younger brother's meddling, Gill organized the third World Warrior tournament with the aim of finding those strong enough to be worthy of repopulating humanity after the end of the world. During this tournament, Ibuki was tasked by her clan to retrieve the G-Project files. Fortunately for her, Gill gave up the files voluntarily; the project was already underway at the time, meaning that the files would no longer be needed.

At some point during the end of the tournament, Gill was defeated by Alex. Though Alex had won the tournament, he refused to outright kill Gill. Since then, Gill has noticed something special about Alex, particularly something that would help a great part in preparing for the upcoming apocalypse.

At some point during the tournament, although disputed whether canon or not, Gill was killed when Akuma caught him by surprise with the Shun Goku Satsu, though he resurrected himself as Akuma left the battle.

Street Fighter lll: Ryu Final
Gill makes an appearance in this particular manga as a foe to Ryu, Ken and Alex.

UDON comics
Gill appear in UDON's Super Street Fighter comics.

In volume one of Super Street Fighter, New Generation, Gill appears there, trivially, in front of a crowd of Illuminati adepts shouting "our lives for lord Gill". This is the second time as Gill appeared, but the first time he appears during the Street Fighter III storyline.

The second volume, named Hyper Fighting,  shows Gill before he acquired his divine powers : during a match against Urien, both of them transform. Gill wins the match very easily, telling his brother that ruling over the Illuminati is not about being served by the world, but by guiding people from the old world to the new one.

However, the main display of Gill's immense power is his fight at the end of "Hyper Fighting", in the previous episode, Urien, assisted by Twelve disguised as M. Bison, was able to capture Ryu (although Ryu seemed to handle Urien quite well, he was distracted by Sakura put in danger by Twelve). At the end of Hyper Fighting, Urien and Twelve/M. Bison, accompanied by Juri, who pretended to betray Seth to get closer to M. Bison (not knowing it was Twelve), are watching Illuminati henchmen transporting a frozen Ryu.

Then, Dan Hibiki arrives and fights common guards before being taken down by Juri. Sakura also arrives, corrupted by the Satsui no Hado (because she wasn't strong enough to protect Ryu, she became infuriated and filled with rage, and Akuma manipulated her further). As Juri is fighting Guile, who arrived in extremis with Alex, Dan tries to stop Sakura, who throws him against Ryu, breaking his ice-prison. As Sakura is about to execute Twelve/Bison, Ryu emerges and shouts to stop her.

Sakura starts attacking Ryu, telling that the Satsui no Hado is the only true way and that he has been keeping it away from her. Although he is still more skilled than his fan, Ryu cannot convince her to let go of this power, and decides to absorb the Satsui no Hado in his own body. Struggling to control this power, he asks Sakura and Dan to kill him while he is comsumed by it.

At the same time, Juri attacks Bison, telling him she wanted revenge for her parents and leaving her for dead, but before she can deliver the final blow, Bison starts speaking in binary and reveals that he's only Twelve disguised. Twelve starts attacking Guile and Juri and flees. Urien and Alex are also fighting, and Urien says that mankind will soon be used to Twelve's kin.

All the fights stop as Akuma emerges and throws a Hadoken at Ryu. An infuriated Evil Ryu emerges, while Akuma unleashes his all power to become Oni. Guile, Alex, Dan, Sakura are impressed by the power, while Urien belittles them, stating that they don't know what power really is, and that with all that ki acting as a beacon, "he (Gill) will soon arrive, he's already here".

Gill lands on the ground and demands calmly that Oni and Evil Ryu calm down. Oni throws a powerful projectile at Gill, but Gill counter calmly with an even more powerful icy sphere that freezes him. Then Gill parries every attack from Evil Ryu, single-handedly, smiling and benevolently saying that destruction is a means of transition, and not an end, that violence is a false idol. Gill almost knocks Evil Ryu down with several attacks, while Evil Ryu can't parry any of them. Oni emerges from his ice-prison and attacks Gill again.

Gill demands once again that Ryu and Oni remain silent, and states that there will be a place for them in the new order Gill is planning to build. Gill then throws one fireball at Oni and one icy-sphere at Evil-Ryu, and knocks them down. Oni has become Akuma again, and Evil Ryu has become Ryu again. Ryu calms down, but Akuma savagely rushes towards Gill, who raises in the air, lifted by six seraphic wings, in a beam of light so powerful that Akuma is knocked down once again.

Gill flies away, asking his brother Urien to come with him, saying that these mortals need time to think about what they saw. Urien's helicopter and Gill fly away, while Akuma is swearing Gill will pay for the loss of his demonic body.

Capcom Fighting Evolution
Gill makes a cameo appearance in M. Bison's Capcom Fighting Evolution ending, where Bison is seen fighting and defeating him with Balrog, Vega, Sagat and the twelve Dolls watching. However, as M. Bison and his followers leave on the Shadaloo plane, Gill resurrects himself, looking completely unscathed from the recent fight.

Gameplay and fighting style
Gill's fighting style appears to be based on the ancient Greek Olympic discipline of Pankration, and relies on the manipulation of fire and ice, as well as elemental clotheslines, headbutts, and knee-drops, all of which are used as well by his brother, Urien. He also has several other powers at his disposal, also mentioned above.

Gill's elemental control is such that fire and ice are perfectly balanced; this is reflected in both his appearance and a rather unique gameplay trait that changes the element of certain attacks (e.g. Pyrokinesis and Cryokinesis) based on the direction he is facing. This simply serves to demonstrate the CPS-3 board's power, and has no effect on damage and stun. Gill is both the first known character to utilize ice-elemental attacks, and also the first character known to have attacks with properties that depend on the direction he is facing.

Gill's overall style focuses on being offensive at all costs while negating anti-air attacks. Unlike Urien, Gill has the advantage of not needing to pause to charge his attacks, and can easily overwhelm a careless opponent. As the final boss, Gill is much more powerful than every other character in Street Fighter III (save for Shin Akuma). He inflicts heavy damage, does an extremely large amount of stun, and can string together very long juggles. He can also inflict block damage with normal attacks, which makes it difficult to employ defensive strategies against him. This also makes it virtually impossible to achieve a perfect victory against Gill. For this reason, he is often unusable during regular game play. However, he has almost no combo extendability in contrast to his brother, but it does not hinder him too much, since two of his Super Arts can be used as a counter at almost any given moment.

The only true way to play as a copy of Gill in the arcade version of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is to use Twelve's X.C.O.P.Y.; in home releases of Street Fighter III, Gill can be selected after he has been defeated at least once by every fighter, or by purchasing him as DLC in Online Edition. He is even playable in Xbox Live matchmaking service games; however, he is only usable in player-matches and is unusable in ranked-matches.

Super Arts
Arguably the most dangerous gameplay element of Gill is his Resurrection Super Art. If his life bar is emptied by the player while his Super Art Gauge is completely filled, Gill will rise from the ground with his health gradually restoring itself. During his rising animation, his opponent is constantly pushed away from him, making it difficult for a player or their projectiles to approach and knock him out of it.

In Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, Gill gains a Super Art called Meteor Strike, where around twenty Cryokinesis and Pyrokinesis projectiles will fall from the sky onto the opposite half of the screen from his position. This can deplete roughly 80% of an opponent's Health Meter on connection, but will not hit an opponent crouching directly next to him under normal circumstances.

In Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Gill gained the Super Art Seraphic Wing, which causes six wings form on his back and emit light waves from his body. Not only does this move cover the entire screen and do ludicrous damage, it is absolutely impossible to evade or parry, making Seraphic Wing Gill's most powerful ability. Its only weakness is its massive startup, though if he is hit out of it while he is rising into position, his Super Art Meter will not be depleted.

Gill possesses the unique ability to use all three of his Super Arts in one battle, rather than selecting one at a time; the only other character with this ability is Akuma, who may use three of his five.

Quotes
See: Gill/Quotes

Trivia

 * Scumoside, a boss from Capcom's science fiction beat em' up game Captain Commando, has the same powers and a similar moveset to that of Gill. Scumoside, however, resembles more of a demon, in contrast to Gill's angel-inspired design.


 * In the ending credits in Street Fighter V, Gill's name is misspelled as "Gil".


 * On Charlie Nash's Street Fighter V character artwork, the statues in the background resemble those of Gill's stage in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact.


 * Gill is known as one of the first "supernatural" bosses in fighting games who is able to manipulate energies.
 * Algol, from Namco's Soul Calibur series, bears a strong similarity to Gill. In Soul Calibur V, Algol's costume bears resemblance to Gill as well as Urien.
 * In addition to Gill having resemblance to Android Kikaider, Kamen Rider W's HeatTrigger Half Change used by the epynomus Rider resembles Gill's powers, with the red left half being able to manipulate fire.
 * By surviving the Raging Demon, Gill shows he is not only physically immortal with his power, but spiritually as well. He endured a similar punishment against Bison in the UDON comics, and again, getting up from it as if nothing happened.


 * In Street Fighter X Tekken, the Tekken final boss Ogre has a Swap Costume modeled after Gill.


 * Both Gill and Urien share the same voice actor in 3rd Strike, Lawrence Bayne.


 * Gill bares some resemblance to Kars, a major villain in the famous manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.


 * If the player loses multiple times consecutively against Gill and continues, Gill will begin taunting (he laughs). This signifies that the difficulty has been lowered.


 * Despite showing realistic asymmetrical movements, Gill's loincloth folds can be still seen mirrored when he turns. His asymmetry comes from his powers being different, and sprite palette being applied depending on which direction he is facing.


 * Gill's 3rd Strike entrance quote was originally meant to be 'The mark of my divinity shall scar thy DNA.' But for unfathomable reasons, the word divinity became dignity, resulting in the quote 'The mark of my dignity shall scar thy DNA.' Considering dignity is not an object to be brandished, it is often seen as a dub error.
 * Gill also has an unused sound sample; Witness my life eternal!


 * If the player is using cheats to select Gill as his/her playable character from the character selection, the game will crash at the final battle. However, this will not happen if the player selects any normal character and then change into Gill at any point after selecting their super art. The selected super art of the previous character will be irrelevant. Hugo's ending will play if the player win, where Gill, now a member of Hugo's HWA, can be seen in one of the scenes happily waving to the audience.

Gallery
Gill/Gallery

Sprites
Gill/Sprites