Master Bison

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Context

Bison is, by far, the most iconic and well known villain of the Street Fighter brawling video games series.

He is a criminal master mind with a sprawling, worldwide empire. This mob can topple governments. They have their fingers in every black market pie, all while ruling from the shadows.

Bison and his henchmen could easily be dropped in as they are into plenty of campaign settings. They can be important, if not the main antagonists for the heroes. Bison himself is no slouch in physical combat and with his Psycho Power he’s achieved nearly godlike levels of power.

So yes he could be a welcome addition to a lot of campaigns if a villain presence is lacking.

What’s in a name

M. Bison was originally called Vega in Japan. But when the game was set to be released in America Capcom feared a law suit from Mike Tyson, as the Japanese character M. Bison was a parody of him.

Capcom therefore shuffled the names around with the bosses. Vega became known as Bison state side.

In some markets, this character is called Mister Bison instead of Master Bison.

Background

Psycho proportions

His official height and weight are listed as above. But in quite a bit of the artwork, in typical super villain fashion, he tends to tower over most other fighters.

Height: 6’6” (1.98m) and Weight: 280 lbs. (127 Kg.) might be a more accurate representation of how he’s actually drawn.

Powers and Abilities

Bison is the greatest criminal mastermind in his universe. He’s completely amoral. There’s no level he won’t stoop to achieve his goal of world domination.

His plans are multi tiered, and he’s secured quite a few bribes to keep law enforcement agencies out of his business.

Among his enterprises are human trafficking, drug dealing, protection and extortion rackets, and illegal gambling. Wherever there’s organized crime activity, then Shadaloo is all over it.

He’s got a shadow army of both criminals and paramilitaries at his beck and call. Not to mention many qualified scientists to assist with his research.

Psycho mastery

While he prefers to rule from the shadows, Bison is dangerous even by himself.

In his true form he is without a doubt one of the best fighters on the planet. It has taken multiple top tier World Warriors to take him down on several occasions.

His Psycho Power is truly a force to be reckoned with, allowing him:

His intellect is also to be feared. He’s proven himself shrewd at leading his criminal empire and vanquishing his enemies while staying discreet.

His organization has pursued cutting edge scientific projects. It is unrevealed how closely Bison has been involved in this research and development. Yet he has helmed multiple breakthroughs, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he had PhD-level knowledge in several scientific areas.

History

There have been a ton of fan theories, official retconsMaking changes to a character or story after the fact., and incoherences about Bison’s past.

One of the more widely believed origins came from the pen and paper White Wolf Street Fighter RPG. It stated that Bison was an elite Soviet soldier sent to investigate a meteor crash in Thailand. He went insane and slaughtered the rest of his team.

Bison then emerged from the cave with his Psycho Power and went on to become the dictator of Thailand.

This is completely false and boy did that game supplement make up a lot of things.

Later on, it was stated that Bison had been one of three disciples learning from a teacher of a mysterious mystic martial art. He then killed his master for the secrets of the art. This story is vague at best.

A deeper shade of soul

It was later stated that Bison and Rose once shared the same soul. Capcom never elaborated on this, but there are two prevalent fan theories.

Capcom’s stance seems to be that an evil such as Bison needs no origin and is best left mysterious. So perhaps the “master and three disciples” bit was retconned away.

From there it seems that Bison created his own criminal empire, named Shadaloo. He also traveled the world fighting worthy opponents.

One of those opponents was a young Gouken. But Bison missed the true potential in the Satsui no Hado (instant murderous intent) which would greatly interest him later.

It’s not stated who came out ahead in this fight either. So perhaps they fought and called it a draw.

Street Fighter Alpha 2, part 1

Bison’s interest was piqued when he heard that Ryu had defeated his right hand man Sagat. Sagat was one of the very best fighters in the world.

The mastermind was later confronted by Rose, whose powers resembled his own. The two fought and Rose bested him, but Bison escaped.

During his search for Ryu he was also challenged by Chun-Li, who had been looking for her missing father. The clearly superior Bison cut the fight short. He taunted her as he flew away, saying that he had killed her father.

Street Fighter Alpha 2, part 2

Hell-bent on destroying Shadaloo, Charlie Nash caught up with Bison near the end of the game. But Bison won by knocking Charlie off a cliff. He did not see that Mr. Nash survived by grabbing hold of the side.

Charlie attacked again, and this time he won. But he soon discovered that the attack helicopter and soldiers that came to reinforce him were secretly on Bison’s payroll. They shot Charlie, causing him to plummet off a waterfall.

The corrupt soldiers asked if Bison wanted them to confirm the kill, but he merely laughed. Bison said that even if Charlie had survived that he would know from now on that everything had a price.

Street Fighter Alpha 3, part 1

By this time Bison’s body had reached its limit. His enormous Psycho Power was simply too much for his mortal frame.

He instructed his scientists to construct him a new one using his DNA, and thus Cammy was born. However, Cammy would soon develop self awareness and go rogue.

He also kidnapped twelve girls from around the world. Bison had them brainwashed and imbued with Psycho Power to act as his assassins, the “dolls”.

Still interested in Ryu, Bison dispatched one of the dolls — Juni — to assess his potential. While Juni kept Ryu busy, Shadaloo kidnapped and brainwashed Ryu’s best friend and rival Ken.

However, Ryu later managed to beat Ken and free him of Bison’s evil influence.

Bison then challenged Ryu. During the match Bison could sense something similar in Ryu’s Satsui no Hado (killing intent). Yet he was still able to beat Ryu as he had been weakened by his previous fight.

Bison then took Ryu to his secret lab for brainwashing.

Street Fighter Alpha 3, part 2

Sagat, Ken, and Sakura then located Bison. Disgusted with his dishonorable methods, Sagat had turned against his employer.

Ken and Sakura fought the mastermind, while Sagat took on Ryu and urged him to snap out of his conditioning.

Ryu succeeded, and hit Bison with a massive Metsu Shoyuken (super dragon punch). Seriously wounded, Bison was forced to retreat to his Psycho Drive to regenerate.

After healing Bison was confronted by a vengeful Cammy, who had rallied the twelve dolls against him. Bison informed them that if he died then they all would, due to a failsafe in the Psycho Drive. But they attacked anyway.

Outnumbered, Bison was again forced to retreat. Cammy then took advantage of the genetic similarities between Bison and herself to eliminate the failsafe.

Meanwhile, Charlie, Guile, and Chun-Li had planted explosives throughout the base. Charlie fought Bison again to buy Chun-Li and Guile enough time to escape. Both Bison and Charlie were seemingly killed in the ensuing explosion.

However Bison’s soul endured. After defeating Rose on the astral planeA psychic realm coexisting with the material world. he possessed her body until his scientists could clone him a new one.

Street Fighter II

Bison rebased to another town in Thailand. Then announced another World Warrior tournament in order to draw Ryu out.

At the climax of the tournament he was confronted by Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Guile, and Cammy. He was no match for their combined might and Guile urged him to surrender. But he instead opted to commit suicide by releasing the last of his Psycho Power in a giant explosion.

Once again his soul survived, and he had his scientists clone him a new body.

But this time Akuma hunted him down. Akuma unleashed his Shun Goku Satsu (instant hell murder) which was an attack on one’s very soul. This seemingly killed Bison for good.

Street Fighter IV, part 1

However, Bison had already set a plot in motion with S.I.N., the weapons development department of Shadaloo. The program had created 26 androids.

The most intelligent one, calling itself Seth, was chosen to lead the organization as per Bison’s orders.

Bison had also ordered a high ranking Korean official to be murdered. The official and his family had their car shot up, but the daughter Juri survived.

Seth had her treated and implanted with cybernetics – and she already was a Tae Kwon Do prodigy. Her lust for revenge against Bison for killing her family might prove useful in the coup Seth was planning.

Meanwhile, Bison once again managed to survive. But he had not yet had a chance to have a clone body constructed. Therefore, he chose to manipulate things behind the scenes and bide his time.

Street Fighter IV, part 2

Seth announced another World Warrior tournament as part of his plot to take over the world.

But the vengeful Juri manipulated events to pit Seth and Bison against one another. Realizing that Seth was stealing his empire, Bison inhabited a new cloned body. He did so prematurely, against his scientists’ advice, as it would not be nearly as powerful as a finished one.

Regardless, Bison still was powerful enough to destroy the competition. He thus made it to Seth’s secret base for a showdown. Crimson Viper, a deep cover CIA infiltrator among Shadaloo, tried to stop him. The enraged Bison beat her, but she escaped alive.

Bison then took on Seth. He was enraged that Seth wasn’t a mindless slave, which was compounded by Seth arguing that he was a more deserving leader than Bison.

Bison won that fight as well, but Juri came in before he could kill Seth. The results for that fight remain unrevealed.

Street Fighter IV, part 3

Bison triggered the self destruct sequence on the base and made for his escape plane.

Along the way he defeated Abel, a warrior with amnesia searching for answers. He remarked that Abel had grown far stronger than when the two had last met, and implied Abel might be an android like Seth.

He also defeated Rose, who was somehow still alive. Bison took her unconscious body with him, possibly to use as a host body again.

Then it was Guy who showed up. He demanded that Bison turn over Rose or face his wrath. Bison threw Rose at Guy so he could finally escape.

In one final encounter before he got to his jet he found Cammy tending to a mortally wounded doll, Decapre. Bison promised to save her life if Cammy allowed him to take Decapre with him.

Out of options Cammy reluctantly agreed and Bison flew off with Decapre.

Street Fighter V, part 1

F.A.N.G. and the Nguuhao Cartel turned against Bison. Their assassination attempt failed miserably and Bison eviscerated them. But he let F.A.N.G. live, as long as he served Shadaloo as Bison’s new top assassin.

Bison’s next scheme for world domination involved creating the Black Moons. These were seven satellites capable of causing massive power outages with electromagnetic waves.

However, one of the programmers stole the means to stop the Black Moons. To cover their tracks they scattered these throughout the world. Their hope was that those opposed to Bison would be able to locate them in time.

Bison dispatched his top operatives to collect the pieces. He also decided to retrieve the piece in L.A. personally.

Bison was confronted by Guile and Chun-Li. Too hungry for vengeance Chun-Li blindly attacked, and was easily swept aside.

Guile was also badly beaten trying to save her. He would have been killed if not for the timely intervention of Cammy.

The heroic trio was then forced to retreat. Bison deemed them not worthy of pursuit and returned to his task at hand.

Street Fighter V, part 2

The Illuminati secret society set their own plans in motion, as Bison was too much of a threat to the world. They reanimated the corpse of Charlie Nash.

Charlie was given the ability to absorb Psycho Power. But he was existing on borrowed time. He also was told that the only way to save the world was to destroy Bison and Shadaloo before he died again.

Consumed by his mission Charlie entered Shadaloo’s main base and confronted Bison. But he was overwhelmed by his Psycho Power.

Charlie only escaped due to the arrival of Necalli – an ancient Mayan deity that consumed souls. But even Necalli was overwhelmed by Bison’s Psycho Power.

(This may be one of the rare times that Bison actually did some good. By defeating the ancient consumer of souls he had thwarted the Prophecy of Soul Consuming Darkness.)

While Bison was busy with Necalli, Charlie joined Guile and others to stop Bison and his Moons. This attack didn’t work either, and led Bison to realise that the reanimated Charlie could absorb Psycho Power.

Bison now focused on capturing Charlie to use his ability. But this meant he had to pull his punches, and left room for other fighters to attack. Charlie could thus absorb large amounts of Psycho Power and detonate himself.

Street Fighter V, part 3

The explosion didn’t kill Bison, but it seriously wounded him. Which is when Ryu came in.

Bison realised that Ryu was the only other person to ever defeat Necalli. He demanded to see his power. But Ryu, who had long been tempted by the Satsui no Hado, had worked to master its opposite – the Power of Nothingness.

Bison launched a Psycho Inferno and Ryu a Hadoken. Bison was consumed by the energy and perished yet again.

Where is he now?

Bison’s life force lives on as a mere specter. He still occasionally haunts Ed and Falke, who were originally made as possible replacement bodies.

Perhaps he has finally been vanquished once and for all.

Description

Bison’s image and style of clothing very much evoke that of a brutal dictator. His bright red military uniform comes complete with long black boots, shoulder pads, and a flowing cape. His police style hat has a winged skull on it.

His facial expressions are usually something of a mix between contempt, rage, or psychotic glee.

His eyes are without pupils and unnerving to look into.

He also has a very strong square jaw.

Physically he’s about average height or perhaps slightly taller, but extremely well built with powerful muscles that would put most body builders to shame.

Personality

Bison is just about the poster child for the Power Lust Motivation.

He’s cold, calculating and completely amoral. He will do whatever necessary for world domination, including kidnapping people and brainwashing them.

He seems to take little pleasure in much else other than perhaps sadistically tormenting a foe or the occasional good fight. Failure in his organization is never tolerated and those that disappoint him tend to die messy deaths.

Quotes

“Get lost ! You can’t compare with my powers !”

“Now face the mighty Bison !”

“Bow down before my Psycho Power !”

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