Master Bison

Advertisement

Background

Psycho proportions

His official height and weight are listed as such, but in quite a bit of the artwork, in typical super villain fashion, he tends to tower over a lot of the other fighters. Height: 6’6” and Weight: 280 lb might actually be a more accurate representation of how he’s actually drawn.

Powers and Abilities

Bison is the greatest criminal mastermind in his entire 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 military at his beck and call. Not to mention many qualified scientists to assist with his academic pursuits.

Advertisement

Mastery

While obviously preferring 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 multiple occasions.

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

• Flight.
• The ability to infuse his attacks with its energy.
• And even brainwash individuals with powerful minds.

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

His organization has been looking into quite a few cutting edge scientific pursuits to aid with the goals. It is unrevealed how closely he has been involved in the day to day research and development. Yet he has helmed multiple scientific break throughs, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he had PhD level knowledge in multiple areas of science.

History

There have been a ton of fan theories and official retcons  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 and 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. The story is vague at best.

A deeper shade of soul

It was later stated that Bison and Rose once shared the same soul which Capcom never really elaborated on. There are two prevalent theories on how this came about.

The first is that after killing their master the two other students used all their power to vanquish Bison themselves. They were unsuccessful, but did manage to split his soul into two halves of good (Rose) and evil (Bison).

The other theory is that Rose was one of the other students and part of their training was sharing souls. A battle for supremacy ended in a draw, but made one pure good and one pure pure evil. The other student was either killed or disappeared.

This was all highly speculative of course. Capcom’s official stance seems to be that an evil such as Bison needs no origin and is best left mysterious. So it seemed this 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 failed to observe 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 defeated Sagat, his right hand man. Sagat was thought to easily be one of the best fighters in the world.

He was later confronted by Rose whose powers seemed curiously similar to his own. The two fought and Rose bested him, but Bison managed to escape.

During his search for Ryu he was also challenged by Chun Li.  She was seeking the whereabouts of her father. The two briefly clashed, but the clearly superior Bison decided to cut the fight short. He also taunted her as he flew away, saying that he killed her father.

Street Fighter Alpha 2, part 2

Toward the end of the game, Charlie Nash came in. Hell-bent on ending his criminal empire, Charlie had tracked Bison down. The two fought and Bison managed to win by knocking Charlie off a cliff. Little did he know that Charlie had been able to grab hold of the side and had not actually plummeted to his death.

Charlie thus confronted him again. He told Bison to turn himself in as an attack helicopter was on its way to assist him in capturing the crime lord. Bison merely laughed and the two fought again, but this time Charlie won. The helicopter arrived just as Charlie was arresting Bison.

But a sniper aboard shot Charlie, causing him to plummet off a waterfall. Bison merely laughed – he’d always been aware that Charlie’s back up was on his pay roll. The corrupt soldiers asked if Bison wanted them to confirm the kill, but he laughed again. 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 from his DNA and thus Cammy was born. However, Cammy would develop self awareness not long after this 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 very interested in Ryu Bison dispatched one of the dolls Juni to assess his potential. While Ryu was busy fighting Juni the crime lord kidnapped and brainwashed Ryu’s best friend and rival Ken. Later Ryu was confronted by a brainwashed Ken. Ryu managed to beat his friend 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 him to his secret lab for to brainwashing.

Street Fighter Alpha 3, part 2

When Ryu’s brainwashing was complete Bison was confronted by Sagat, Ken, and Sakura. Ken and Sakura fought Bison, while Sagat took on Ryu and urged him to snap out of his conditioning. Sagat had grown disgusted with Bison’s dishonorable methods, as he merely wished to have a fair rematch with Ryu.

Ryu was finally able to snap out of it and hit Bison with a massive Metsu Shoyuken (super dragon punch). Bison was seriously wounded and forced to retreat to his Psycho Drive to regenerate.

After regenerating Bison was then confronted by Cammy. She had become self aware and sought revenge. She had also managed to turn the twelve dolls against him. Bison informed them that if he died then they all would as he had installed a failsafe in the Psycho Drive. But they attacked anyway.

Grossly outnumbered Bison was again forced to retreat. Cammy then ordered the dolls to escape the base. She then took advantage of the genetic similarities between Bison and herself and released the failsafe freeing both herself and the dolls.

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 managed to survive. After defeating Rose on the astral plane  he possessed her body until his scientists could clone him a new one.

Street Fighter II,

Bison rebased to another town in Thailand. He 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 one large burst that created a giant explosion.

Once again his soul survived. Bison 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

During the events of SFII 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 among batch #15, 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 her 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 he 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 Juri, still wanting revenge, manipulated events to pit Seth and Bison against one another. Realizing that Seth’s was gradually stealing his empire from him Bison inhabited a new cloned body. He did so prematurely, against his scientists’ advice, as it would not be nearly as powerful as when it was finished.

Regardless, Bison still was powerful enough to destroy the competition. He thus made it to Seth’s secret base for a showdown. But the was confronted by Crimson Viper, a deep cover CIA infiltrator among Shadaloo. The enraged Bison beat her, but she managed to escape 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 fought Abel, a warrior with amnesia searching for answers. Bison beat him. He remarked that Abel had grown far stronger than when the two had last met, and implied Abel might be a clone like Seth.

He was also ambushed by Rose, who was somehow still alive despite having her mind, body, and soul thoroughly destroyed previously. He beat her again. Bison took her unconscious body with him, possibly to use as a host body again.

While carrying the body to his jet he was confronted by Guy who demanded that Bison turnover Rose or face his wrath. Bison, who at this point had had enough and seriously wanted to escape, threw Rose at him and teleported out.

In one final encounter before he got to his jet he found Cammy tending to a mortally wounded Decapre, one of the twelve dolls. 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 her.

Street Fighter V, part 1

F.A.N.G. and the Nguuhao Cartel, who were under Shadaloo’s control, attempted a coup by assassinating Bison. They failed miserably and Bison eviscerated them. But he left their leader F.A.N.G. alive as long as he swore eternal loyalty to Bison. F.A.N.G. agreed and became one of their top assassins.

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 the programmer scattered the pieces throughout the world. Their hope was that those opposed to Bison would be able to locate them and use them to stop him before he found them himself. Bison dispatched his top operatives to collect the pieces. He also decided to retrieve the piece in LA 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

Well aware of the threat that Bison posed to the rest of the world the Illuminati Secret Society set their own plans in motion. They reanimated the corpse of Charlie Nash in order to stop him. Charlie was given the power to absorb Psycho Power he was existing on borrowed time.

His mind had also been manipulated to make him think 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 Pycho 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 Pycho 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 other allies of theirs trying to stop Bison and his Moon. 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 Ryu’s power. But the street fighter, who had long been tempted by the Satsui no Hado, had in recent years 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 military style uniform is bright red/ It comes complete with long black boots shoulder pads and a flowing cape along with a police style hat with 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 Power Lust. 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 !”

By Tom Eilers.

Source of Character: Street Fighter video games.

Helper(s): Sean McDonald (for the original take), GameFAQs  (for everything that you ever wanted to know about the Street Fighter universe and more !) Sébastien Andrivet, Kal el Vigilante, Peter S Piispanen, Darci, Alan Wilkinson, Ethan Roe, Jobe, William Chamberlin.