Gill

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

- Gill

Gill (ギル) is a video game character from the Street Fighter series, first appearing as the main antagonist of Street Fighter III: New Generation. He is the leader of the Illuminati, a secret society made up of humanity's elite who have controlled world events from the shadows since the dawn of history, and seeks to fulfill an apocalyptic agenda to ensure its own utopian salvation.

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, and utilize powers over light and darkness. 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.

In Street Fighter V, during Kolin's Character Story, Gill wears only a white robe-like cloak with the left side being sleeveless.

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.

His outfit during Kolin's Character Story in Street Fighter V resembles the cloak-like robe that Jesus wore after his resurrection in both movies, The Passion of the Christ and The Son of God.

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"; in addition, allusions to Norse Mythology made to him in supplementary materials and in game (ie. Ragnarok Winners), his role as a villainous savior, and his pure martial arts fighting style, also has him draws similarity to the antagonist Dhaos of the Namco Super Nintendo RPG flagship title Tales of Phantasia. Gill also bares some resemblance to both Kars and Santana, villains from the Battle Tendency iteration of the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure; he is especially similar to Kars since both are responsible for the rise of their respective series dominant antagonists (M. Bison and Dio) and they both obtained a different kind of immortality (Kars by gaining invulnerability to sunlight and enhanced body manipulation, and Gill via his resurrection ability).

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.

Personality
He is presented as a cult leader who would become a benevolent and compassionate monarch over his worthy subjects. Worldly, majestic, impressive, and charismatic in his pursuits, Gill is not without flaws however, being haughty, arrogant, disdainful, manipulative, 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.

Urien
Urien positively dislikes Gill due to the fact that his older brother won the election of being President of the Illuminati, and when the two fought, Gill purposely threw the match so that he can be emperor, which made Urien upset, hating him even more. Gill takes no chance to belittle his brother whenever they encounter.

Kolin
Kolin is deeply loyal to Gill, entirely convinced that he is the prophesied messiah. At the end of A Shadow Falls, she is shocked and honored that despite her failure to satisfy the ancient prophecy with her Nash project, Gill still wishes for her to serve at his side.

Chun-Li
Gill is among Chun-Li's most hated enemies.

Ryu
Gill is one of Ryu's enemies. Ryu finds Gill to be no better than Bison due to his actions and the lengths he has gone to achieve them.

Akuma
Upon hearing about his powers, Akuma desired to fight Gill. Akuma killed Gill with the Raging Demon, but left without realizing that Gill could resurrect himself.

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.

Other Prologue Appearances

Gill appears in Kolin's flashback on her Character Story, meeting a younger Kolin who is saddened for losing her hometown in a war.

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 III: Ryu Final
In volume one, Ken tracks down Gill and challenges him to a fight. Gill is unimpressed by Ken's ambition for using him as a stepping stone towards surpassing Ryu, but nevertheless obliges. Revving up his power, Gill announces to Ken that he will soon taste the power of a god and both fighters clash.

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

In volume one of Super Street Fighter, New Generation, Gill appears in front of a crowd of Illuminati adepts shouting "our lives for lord Gill". This is the first time that Gill has appeared, but the second time that he appears during the Street Fighter III storyline later on, he is given a picture of Alex, and begins to grow interested by him, as his secret island was unexpectedly discovered by Tom, a close friend of Alex and because of this, he kidnapped him, knowing full well that this will easily and intentionally draw Alex out into the open.

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. At somepoint, his organization works in the shadows and begins to rule over everything by teaming up with Shadaloo and Bison, taking control of everything such as the United States Army, Delta Red and even Interpol itself.

However, the main display of Gill's immense influence and power is his fight at the end of "Hyper Fighting". In the previous chapter, Urien, assisted by Twelve who was disguised as M. Bison, was able to bring an immobilized Ryu for a planned Illuminati meeting (although Ryu seemed to handle Urien quite well earlier on, he was unexpectedly distracted by Sakura being 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 that it was actually Twelve in disguise) are watching Illuminati henchmen transporting a frozen Ryu in order for him to be taken back to the Illuminati's hidden base.

Then suddenly from out of nowhere, Dan Hibiki arrives and fights a few Illuminati common guards before being taken down by Juri herself. Sakura also arrives as well, but is unexpectedly corrupted by the Satsui no Hado (because she wasn't strong enough to protect Ryu from being kidnapped, she became infuriated and filled with rage, and Akuma manipulated her further). As Juri is fighting Guile, who arrived with Alex, Dan tries to stop Sakura from continuing her relentless assault, but Sakura refuses to listen and throws Dan against Ryu, breaking and freeing him from his ice-prison. As Sakura is about to execute Twelve/Bison, Ryu emerges and yells at her to stop fighting.

Sakura starts attacking Ryu, telling him that the Satsui no Hado is the only true path to absolute power 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 from there, he decides to absorb the Satsui no Hado from her so that he can place it in his own body. Struggling to control the immeasurable and unfathomable power of the Satsui no Hado, he asks Sakura and Dan to kill him before he is completely consumed by it.

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

All the fights soon stop unexpectedly as Akuma emerges and throws a Hadoken at Ryu. An infuriated Evil Ryu also emerges while Akuma unleashes his all power to become Oni. Guile, Alex, Dan, and 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 both Oni and Evil Ryu calm down. Oni throws a powerful projectile at Gill, but Gill counters 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 both Evil Ryu and Oni remain silent, and states that there will be a place for them in the new world order that Gill is planning to build and establish. Gill then throws one fireball at Oni and one icy-sphere at Evil Ryu and knocks the two of them down upon sight, with Oni transforming back into becoming Akuma while Evil Ryu reverts back to Ryu once again. While Ryu calms down, Alex tries to attacks Gill as Gill himself had told him that he has been somewhat interested in meeting him for quite some time (knowing full well that they are a part of the same family line). After being defeated by Gill, Akuma (angry from having to transform back from his Oni state) savagely rushes towards Gill, who raises himself in the air, lifted by six seraphic wings, in a beam of light so strong that Akuma is knocked down once again.

Gill then flies away from the scene, 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 to Gill that he will pay dearly for the loss of his own demonic body.

In due time, Gill had soon hosted a fighting tournament as a way to lure out both Alex and Ryu for his own manipulative plans while having the governments of the world and the United Nations thinking that he is a hero after he had his own henchmen set off a rocket that he had easily destroyed. He had then told the world about his fighting tournament as a way to celebrate the new age of saving the world with the Illuminati through advanced technology made and created by them.

He was able to get many fighters, such as the former Mad Gear Gang members Hugo, Rolento, and Poison to join and enter his fighting tournament. Guy, Cody, Chun-Li, and Guile (who had personally believed that he wasn't a real hero and that he had something deviously planned) had also came to the fighting tournament as well in order to find out on what Gill was really planning and up to. Ryu and Alex were also able to make their own way to him as well. Gill's henchmen had a secret project that was very similar to the same design that Shadaloo's own weapons factory was working on and that it was almost ready and prepared for him to change the world in his own image.

When Rufus was badly wounded against Adon from within their match, Gill had used his power to heal him. Gill then had Twelve take the appearance of Akuma (the same trick that he had used to lure Juri over to his side by having Twelve take the appearance of Bison) as a way to lure out the Satsui no Hado in Ryu. It went perfectly according to his plan as Ryu had soon transformed into Evil Ryu and calls out to him. Gill had then told Ryu that he has finally revealed his true self as the two fighters soon battle against one another upon sight.

Near the end of their match, Gill freezes Ryu in suspended animation, which then enables him to show the fighters that came to his fighting tournament a secret weapon that would truly change all of humanity. As the secret weapon became very functional upon sight, Gill's entire body was completely destroyed from the result of the secret weapon's own blast explosion. However, Gill's soul was able to take over Alex's mind as the dual colors of both red and blue had soon marked itself upon him. From there, Gill, who is now in total and absolute control of Alex, knocks out Urien with much ease. When this happens, the former Mad Gear Gang members and the other fighters had finally saw Gill's true intentions to rule the world and many of them, including Poison and Hugo, had deemed him to be no better then Bison himself, thus all of them had instantly and immediately proceeded to fight against him in order to stop and prevent him from succeeding with his malevolent plan of world domination.

Gill had gained the upper hand, telling everyone that he is the one who can save the the world from itself, as he is the one who can truly bring justice and peace throughout the world. Before Gill can attack the fighters much further, he is unexpectedly stopped by Necro, who tries to tell him that this is going too far. Gill told him that he was saved by him and in return, he was to serve the Illuminati with undying loyalty and no questions asked. Necro, now finally realizing and understanding that this is not the justice that he was fighting for, told him that he is not a god and that he had tried to hold him off only to fail. Gill was then fought by Ryu, who told him that the New Age of the Illuminati must come to a close. Furthermore, to Gill's own shock and dismay, Alex had begun to overcome Gill's control over his mind and body, and through his own personal resolve and determination, Alex was able to break free of Gill's control as his body had returned back to its own normal color.

Gill's soul was then attacked by Ryu's Shun Goku Satsu and when this had happened, Gill himself had soon faded into total and absolute nothingness. After the events of Gill's fighting tournament, many of the members of the Illuminati had instantly and immediately went into complete hiding from the authorities. As Kolin herself had a new plan, she too also disappears as well, having both samples of Gill's own cells and a newly brainwashed servant.

Street Fighter vs. Darkstalkers
Gill makes an appearance in the comic book crossover Street Fighter vs. Darkstalkers, as he forms an alliance with the Grim Reaper-esque Shinigami known as Jedah Dohma, the two of them having plans and goals to rid their realms of chaos in order to establish order above everything else.

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.

Fighting style and abilities
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.

By surviving the Shun Goku Satsu, Gill shows he is not only physically immortal with his power, but spiritually as well.

In Capcom Fighting Evolution he endured a similar punishment against M. Bison but again, got up from it as if nothing happened. His immortality may have a limitation, however, as per the UDON comics; it should be noted that after the loss of his body and later his control of Alex's body, Gill's soul was attacked by Ryu's own Shun Goku Satsu and faded into nothingness.

Moveset
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

 * 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 is the heaviest character in the Street Fighter series so far; he is even heavier than Abigail, who weighs 584 lbs (265 kg), despite being shorter than the Final Fight character by over a foot.


 * 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 has an unused sound sample in 3rd Strike; 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.


 * Scumocide, 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.


 * 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.


 * 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.


 * 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.

Gallery
Gill/Gallery

Sprites
Gill/Sprites