T. Hawk

"Your scream sounds like a pathetic war cry!"

- T. Hawk (Super Street Fighter II)

"Fighting with conviction leads to victory! (信念をもって戦いそして勝つ！)"

- T. Hawk (Street Fighter IV series)

Thunder Hawk (サンダー・ホーク), is a video game character from the Street Fighter series, first appearing in Super Street Fighter II. He is a Native American from Mexico whose ancestral homeland was taken over by Shadaloo, forcing him into exile.

Background
When he was an infant, he and the members of his tribe were being forced off their land by Shadaloo. Many of the Thunderfoot members resisted and fought against them, and some were killed, including their leader, Arroyo Hawk (T. Hawk's father), who was cowardly murdered by a younger M. Bison. Now living in Mexico near the Monte Albán plains, T. Hawk wants nothing more than revenge from Bison for his despicable actions and to reclaim the land that was taken from his people. The Thunderfoot tribe had also experienced disappearances of many of their people, T. Hawk took the responsibility of finding them. One of them, his beloved Julia, became Juli, one of Bison's brainwashed assassins known as The Dolls.

Appearance
T. Hawk is an immensely tall and bulky man with long, powerful arms and legs, massive hands and feet, shoulder-length slick brown hair and imposing facial features such as pronounced cheekbones, a flat nose and a wide square chin. He paints his cheeks and lower jaw in a white Native-style battle paint. His clothing consists of denim vest and pants, iron bracers entirely covering both forearms, thin steel armbands around his biceps, a cowboy-esque brown leathery belt with a huge buckle and metal decorative tokens, moccasin shoes or boots and a blue and white triangular-patterned headband ostentating a pair of white eagle feathers (one of them is red at its end tip) etched diagonally upwards from it. His head accessory is a memento from his father.

Personality
T. Hawk is commonly brave, tough, selfless, noble-spirited, centered and fearless, but equally grumpy, cold, brutish, unemotional and apparently unsympathetic. His lack of emotion display mostly comes from the suffering and devastation inflicted by M. Bison towards his people and sacred homelands - such hatred grew even more powerful in Street Fighter Alpha 3, when T. Hawk discovers that his childhood friend and lover Julia was turned into Juli, one of the Shadaloo's top-ranking female assassins known as The Dolls, under Bison's brainwash. Despite his externally hard demeanor, T. Hawk is actually a warm-hearted, compassionate man - as evidenced in several of his artworks, where he shows unquenchable affection for native animals - who sights revenge solely on the purpose of rescuing his long-lost people and restoring his ruined homelands back to its former glory.

Street Fighter Alpha 3
T. Hawk leaves his home village after the disappearances of some of the locals. His last opponent before fighting M. Bison is Juli, one of the former's assassins and bodyguards. Juli is later revealed to be Julia, the girl T. Hawk was searching for, who was captured and brainwashed into becoming one of M. Bison's assassins. After defeating M. Bison, T. Hawk takes Juli back to his homeland in hopes of removing her brainwashing that she is still alimented with.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo
T. Hawk enters the second World Warrior tournament to battle against M. Bison to find Julia, reclaim his people's land and win their freedom from his tyranny. He does not come out as the grand champion, but does regain his land - however, it is desolate and empty. Determined, T. Hawk vows to make his land as great as it once was and bring the Thunderfoot people back home.

Super Street Fighter IV
His land begins to recover from Shadaloo's damage, though it is not even close to its former glory. Because of this, and the fact that T. Hawk was ultimately unable to save Julia, he feels that he isn't worthy to be the next chief of the Thunderfoot tribe. He decides to enter S.I.N.'s next tournament to continue his atonement. Along the way he encounters El Fuerte, and it appears the two have previously met each other. They then battle it out to settle their old rivalry.

In his ending, T. Hawk meets Rose, who tells him where Julia is, but warns him that "she is now a shell of her former self". T. Hawk, following Rose's directions, finds Julia in a cabin in the wilderness, being taken care of by an elderly couple - however, her mental state is troubled, and she does not appear to recognize him or even notice his presence. T. Hawk's ending appears to be non-canonical, considering Julia's reappearance as a Doll in Street Fighter V.

Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie
T. Hawk made a small appearance in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, having traveled to Washington to find and challenge Ken. He proves to be a formidable opponent in the ensuing street fight, but Ken overpowers him and defeats him with a Shoryuken, greatly weakening him. T. Hawk demands Ken finish him off with a Hadoken but Ken refuses, instead leaving. At one point, T. Hawk admits that he intends to track down and battle Ryu, who defeated Sagat in the movie's prologue. It is unknown whether or not T. Hawk finds Ryu in the end.

Street Fighter USA cartoon
This version of T.Hawk is more like a neutral variation of him since he is on both good and evil sides. He appeared in three episodes of the series, Desert Thunder, Keeping the Peace, and The Hammer Strikes.

Street Fighter film
In the 1994 live-action Street Fighter film, T. Hawk was a Sergeant serving under Colonel Guile. He and Cammy (who is a Lieutenant) appeared to be Guile's second in command, which would lead one to believe his rank was something along the lines of Master Sergeant or Chief Master Sergeant. T. Hawk was portrayed by Gregg Rainwater.

Gameplay and fighting style
T. Hawk is the equal of Zangief in strength, but uses more "finesse" in his attacks. Though large, he can defeat many smaller, more agile fighters with his devastating Tomahawk Buster, Condor Dive and Mexican Typhoon techniques. Unlike most bulky warriors, he does not like to grapple, but he can when necessary. More often, however, he uses the swooping aerial attacks that are also at his disposal.

Trivia

 * T. Hawk's background in the Super Street Fighter II games feature the Hospicio Cabañas in Guadalajara, Mexico.


 * Being 7'7" (230 cm) tall, T. Hawk is the second-tallest character in the Street Fighter series, behind Hugo.


 * T. Hawk shares his birthday with Ryu.


 * T. Hawk is one of the eleven playable Street Fighter characters who are in a romantic relationship or are married.


 * In the UDON comics, T. Hawk, watching a wrestling match on TV in a restaurant, requests that the channel be changed, since he can't stand pro wrestling. After El Fuerte hears him badmouth both pro wrestling and R. Mika, Fuerte bursts from the kitchen and yells at him (this is due to Fuerte being a big fan of Mika, as her image adorns every piece of his cooking attire).
 * This could possibly be the reason they are rivals in Super Street Fighter IV. Another possible reason they are rivals is hinted from T. Hawk's dialogue of "Looks like I have more to teach you" prior to his rival match against El Fuerte, which would suggest that Fuerte might have lost to T. Hawk before the events of SSFIV.
 * His dislike of professional wrestling likely stems from the record of Native American wrestlers utilizing gimmicks culturally appropriating and lumping in traits into a single stereotype for stage presence; notably, there are few and far any Native Americans who have yet to make a name in the world of martial arts.


 * The name of T. Hawk's theme, "Eye of the Eagle", was inspired by Survivor's song Eye of the Tiger.


 * T. Hawk is the only character in Super Street Fighter IV where he is referred by both his first initial and last name by the announcer upon winning a match. All other characters with a first initial (such as M. Bison, E. Honda and C. Viper) are only referred to by their last name by the announcer.


 * Out of all the playable characters in Super Street Fighter IV, T. Hawk is the only one not to say a single word in his own ending. All the dialogue in his ending comes from Rose and the two elderly people looking after Julia.


 * In Makoto's 3rd Strike ending, T. Hawk can be seen among the fighters defeated by Makoto. This was most likely a cameo appearance than anything else.

Quotes

 * See: T. Hawk/Quotes

Gallery
T. Hawk/Gallery

Sprites
T. Hawk/Sprites