Charlie Nash

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

- Charlie (Street Fighter Alpha 3)

"Stand in my way...and you will die. (私の邪魔をするのなら…消えてもらう.)"

- Nash (Street Fighter V)

Charlie Nash (チャーリー・ナッシュ), known as Charlie or Nash dependent upon the game and region, is a character from Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games. He is a First Lieutentant in the United States Air Force, typically flying with his VTOL Harrier, and fighting 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.

Charlie appears as a returning playable character in the upcoming Street Fighter V where he goes by his original Japanese name "Nash".

Biography
According to supplementary materials, Charlie Nash's past saw him as a young U.S Marines enrolled university student with a major in biology and an interest in martial arts. His career eventually saw him climb the ranks, and become 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 became 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 mention of Guile's friend's name nor Cambodia.

In the comic adaptation of Street Fighter by UDON as well as The Legend of Chun-Li film, 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.

As of Street Fighter V, Capcom appears to have dropped his first name in-game in all regions as he goes by "Nash" in English-speaking territories as well. It is unknown if this is simply a decision to give him a single name in every region or if this change is reflective of something in-universe as well.

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 retains a similar outfit for his return in Street Fighter V; however, his body appears to have been patched back together, as it is 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 (which has golden yellow upper linings) and cargo pants are now brown and his combat boots are now light green.

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 personality is seen to have taken a drastic turn for currently unknown reasons. Instead of the calm, cool, and sarcastic paragon of justice from the Alpha series, Charlie is now driven by an obsessive need to kill M. Bison. Consumed with this obsession, Charlie is ruthless to friends and enemies alike, even threatening the life of Chun-Li (stating in his win quote that he will kill her if she gets in his way again).

He is also far less forgiving, judging Cammy as being just as guilty as M. Bison due to formerly being his slave, whereas during their encounter in Alpha 3, he considered her an innocent victim of Shadaloo's cruelty. Charlie considers Birdie's existence as useless, calling him an "idiotic pig" and questioning why he is even alive, even though Birdie is no longer a member of Shadaloo at the time of Street Fighter V.

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. In Street Fighter V, several of Charlie's win quotes state that his sole purpose is now exacting revenge upon Bison.

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. In Street Fighter V, Charlie's win quote mentions he will kill her if she stands in his way again. Because of their friendship, it might mean Chun-Li is trying to salvage Charlie's mind and morals for justice, stead of killing for revenge.

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 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 the 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.

An official Capcom character relations chart, however, confirms that Charlie was the one who rescued Abel from Shadaloo, providing hard evidence of his survival. Abel's biography page in the Street Fighter: World Warrior Encyclopedia (hardcover version) backs up this evidence as well. Charlie's only other known activity during this time is entrusting Abel to the care of several mercenary friends.

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, similar to Gill and Urien. 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 (refered as Nash in all regional versions) was released on the official Street Fighter YouTube channel where he was seen fighting both Chun-Li and Ryu. By the time Street Fighter V takes place, Charlie is no longer with the Air Force.

While details are scarce at the moment, various win and lose quotes note his altered personality. He appears entirely bent on killing M. Bison out of vengeance (as he openly states that he came back to life solely to kill M. Bison, "nothing more, nothing less."), whereas in the Alpha series, he was motivated by his desire for justice. Charlie even intends to kill Cammy and make her "repent" for previously being one of Bison's servants (despite her having been manipulated unwillingly).

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. 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.

In Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, Charlie appears as his normal self, indicating that this game's events may have taken place prior to the others.

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.

Street Fighter II 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, M. 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 Alpha manga
In the Street Fighter Alpha manga by Masahiko Nakahira, Charlie encounters Chun-Li, Ryu, and Ken in Florida, where Ken had been fighting at a tournament. He personally speaks with Chun-Li, introducing himself and informing her of Shadaloo's growing power. The two discuss their plans to work together against the criminal organization, and Charlie decides to work behind-the-scenes to acquire data and communicate with Chun-Li as she goes along to Shadaloo's tournament with Ryu.

Later on, when Bison launches an attack on Shinjuku-ward, Tokyo, Japan, Charlie joins Chun-Li in attacking Bison's "flying fortress" (a jet containing his Psycho Drive), where he briefly battles Vega. Chun-Li tells Charlie about the Psycho Drive and its connection to Bison's power; this is the final scene in which Charlie appears in the manga.

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, the as dictator's infamous Psycho Power is forced into his body, he witnesses Dorai's demise at the hands of one of the Dolls. Brainwashed into becoming "Agent Shadow" of Shadaloo, Charlie is assigned to monitor those who are perceived as a threat to Bison's criminal empire. After Vega's failed attempt at assassinating 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 Shadaloo schemes. As he briefs in Chun-Li of her father's fate, M. Bison arrives at the scene and guns Charlie down.

Bison proceeds to effortlessly defeat Guile and Chun-Li, but before he is able to finish them off, an 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, an 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.

Charlie is the subject of an special UDON comic: Street Fighter V: The Life and Death(s) of Charlie Nash, a compilation of past stories which cover both his background, including his previous military work and encounters with Guile, and every instance of him "dying" up to and including Street Fighter Alpha 3. The comic also cover the details behind his "revival" leading up to his appearance in Street Fighter V, as well as Charlie's Shadow persona.

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 the Street Fighter II V anime series, 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 M. 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 and Fighting Style
Charlie was introduced as the one who originally taught Guile his current fighting style. Because of this, Charlie is a "clone" who uses the same fighting style, complete with most of the same normal and special attacks, but with some few differences. The main difference is that Charlie's fighting style is 'perfected', while Guile's is less proficient because of his short temper and lack of focus. This is shown in his ability to throw a Sonic Boom with one hand (and sometimes even his feet), as well as his two-hit Flash Kick that uses both legs. In addition, Charlie also possesses the Bazooka Knee, one of the only few dash attacks in Street Fighter Alpha 3.

In Street Fighter V, his moveset has undergone a drastic change (while still retaining some of the original moves); he now utilizes the Moonsault Slash, an overhead attack from the air from Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. His Flash Kick, now called Sonic Scythe, has been altered as it is performed differently and with one leg. Charlie also appears to exhibit powers similar to M. Bison, including his wind-like ki emanates a dark, Psycho Power-esque hue during a few of his attacks and he can teleport with Sonic Move, that allows Charlie to warp behind or above his opponent. As of Street Fighter V, Charlie is no longer a charge character.

In general, Charlie possess a drastically retooled and more violent fighting style; this includes a new tackle maneuver, Tragedy Assault, in which Charlie violently shoves his opponent's head to the ground and infuses Ki energy into them, and the Judgement Sabre in which Charlie forces a vertical Sonic Hurricane into the opponent's head.

Super Combos
Charlie's first Super Combo in the Alpha series (and his X-Ism Super) is Somersault Justice, in which Charlie unleashes a series of back-to-back Flash Kicks; in A-Ism levels 1 and 2 feature two Flash Kicks, while level 3 adds a third.

Charlie's second Super Combo is the Sonic Break. Charlie throws a number of Sonic Boom attacks in various ways and numbers depending on the level of Super used. At level 3, Charlie throws a Sonic Boom normally, then via an uppercut, then with a Spinning Back Knuckle and finally kicks a Sonic Boom to demonstrate his mastery of the attack.

Charlie's third Super Combo is the Crossfire Blitz. At level 3, Charlie strings together a series of grounded hard kicks leading into a series of jumping roundhouses and ending with several ki-infused punches, finishing with an uppercut.

In Street Fighter V, Charlie's Critical Art is the Judgement Sabre. When executed, Charlie dashes through his opponent (the attack is a strike but the dash does not deal a hit if unblocked) who becomes enveloped by black mist. Rising up behind them, the mist dissipates and Charlie slams a vertical Sonic Hurricane into the opponent's head, dealing ten hits.

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 is one of Devilotte's assistants in Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness, has a minor similar hair and facial appearance to Charlie.


 * In the second promotional trailer for Street Fighter V, which focused on the return of Charlie as a playable character, the theme Nothing Can Keep Me Away from the album Epic Action & Adventure Vol. 10 is playing as the musical background.


 * As the story of the Alpha series takes place in the late 1980's, his background story appears to tie in heavily with the controversial real life US Government endorsed nationwide campaign of the "War On Drugs"; though the agenda was well and alive throughout in the 20th Century, the war saw higher activity during upon the 1970's and the 1980's due to the flood of cocaine and crack cocaine, and the start of a youth awareness program series to warn the young of the alleged dangers recreational drugs could have. Furthermore, how Charlie is targeting infrastructural corruption regarding the military and drug pushing is reference to many allegations throughout the US that certain branches of the US Military and government bought mass quantities of cocaine from South American rebels regarding the rise of Communist and totalitarian regimes, and to support by funding them to overthrow said governments, but remains highly questionable in practice and effectiveness on retrospect; how Shadaloo's position is located in South America in the Alpha series strongly hints at this.


 * According to Udon's Street Fighter V comic The Life and Death(s) of Charlie Nash, it is possible that Charlie may be religious.


 * According to the Street Fighter: World Warrior Encyclopedia (hardcover version), Charlie is one of two people to deal M. Bison a defeat in direct, single combat (during the events of Alpha 3, in which a combination of the beginning of Charlie's ending and the end of Guile's forms part of the canon ), the other one being Ryu.
 * His English voice actor, Jack Calabrisi also voices Tekken's Lars Alexandersson in Street Fighter X Tekken. Interestingly, few of Charlie's grunts are much sounded like Lars.

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