Terry Bogard

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Context

Terry Bogard originally was the main character in 1991+ brawling video game franchise Fatal Fury. He then carried over as one of the playable characters in a more recent franchise, King of Fighters (KoF).

During the successive Fatal Fury games, Terry got pushed aside in favor of the newer cast. But he went on to resurface as the main character, and the only one to endure from the original game… until he was once again pushed aside for newer characters.

Still, he’s a cornerstone in his universe. And he has, by far, the longest and most detailed biography of the lot.

The Fatal Fury/King of Fighters storyline is quite epic. It also has undergone a number of changes in its 20 year span — well over 20 games — that tell a different part of it.

Continuity

That said, there’s all kinds of continuity oddities and other stuff that just plain doesn’t make sense.

The worst of it came in 2001 when SNK, the company that produced the game, went bankrupt. That was right before they could produce what looked to be the final chapter of the NEST Cartel story arc.

They got bought out by a Korean company called Eolith. By all accounts, it did a less than stellar job of marketing a product with a solidly established fan base. That seemingly squelched any chance of ever seeing another SNK game.

However SNK returned a few years later. They went with a completely new everything from graphics, to graphic and animation style, game play, and of course storyline.

Continuity (continued)

That meant a bunch of retconsMaking changes to a character or story after the fact to their preexisting universe to make way for their new storyline. Some of the changes make it difficult to pinpoint what did and did not happen.

In particular, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, SNK’s answer to Street Fighter 3 that focused on “the next generation of fighters” further complicated things. Especially since it was released just before they went bankrupt.

It is stated to still be in continuity and in line with their latest games. Yet it still doesn’t seem to line up timeline wise or on a lot of other story points. Such as characters having histories together.

Background

Powers and Abilities

Terry very much has a “chosen one” (no relation) vibe going for him.

Despite growing up as an orphan on the mean streets of (dangerous) South Town he was able to master several martial arts forms. Then he mixed them into a deadly self made fighting style. It includes elements of boxing, kung fu, and acrobatic fighting.

He got some formal training under his adoptive father before he was murdered – and some later under Tung Fu Rue. The rest, he just kind of picked up by himself.

Master

While no longer the very best martial artist in his universe, he remains top tier.

Just because he hasn’t won any of the more recent King of Fighters Tournaments doesn’t mean that his abilities have atrophied in the slightest. And it should also be mentioned that some of the final bosses for these tournaments are literal gods.

Terry’s special powers come from his ability to tap into and harness the very life energy of the Earth. By using chthonic power, he throws devastating punches infused with life energy. Those explode with the force of a bomb.

He can also shoot a somewhat weak projectile that needs to travel along the ground (and loses strength over distance).

His acrobatic abilities and jumping ability are also mixed into his martial arts techniques. This makes him an extremely mobile fighter.

Focusing both his earth energy powers and his martial arts techniques is done by always remaining completely calm, cool and focused. Terry does not allow emotion to cloud his judgement.

Soundtrack

The Neo Geo Land folks have a fatal Fury music themes compilation. Here it is.

Timeline note

One egregious continuity issue is Rock Howard’s age.

Garou Mark of the Wolves is supposed to be Rock’s coming of age tale. It takes place several years after the King of Fighters Tournament. Yet SNK later released KoF instalments with Rock as a playable character.

This normally wouldn’t be a problem. But Kim Kaphwan’s two sons, Dong Hwan and Jae Hoon, are playable characters as well. They are in their late teens and would be about the same age as Rock… yet in the later KoF games they still are preteen kids.

Therefore:

History (Fatal Fury games)

Terry and his younger brother Andy were orphaned at a young age, through unrevealed circumstances.

They were later adopted by Jeff Bogard and took his family name.

Jeff was a world renowned martial artist. He taught the boys martial arts as well as discipline and a strong sense of right and wrong.

But as with many heroic origins, their good fortune would tragically come to an end.

Jeff, and Geese Howard, were the two best pupils of Tung Fu Rue. The aging master decided that it was time for one of his pupils to run the dojo.

Jeff and Geese were equally skilled, but Tung knew that the clear choice was Jeff. He was the altruistic one that would continue to uphold Tung’s righteous and just ideals.

By contrast Geese was far too ambitious. He clearly would use the position for personal benefit and to the detriment of others.

Origin: A Wolf is Born

Geese stole ancient scrolls from Tung. He thus learned techniques that were only meant for the head of the dojo.

When Terry was 10 and Andy was 8 Geese challenged Jeff to a duel to the death. Jeff refused, having no interest in such blood sport. But Geese forced his hand by threatening his adopted sons and innocent bystanders.

The duel was fairly short. While both opponents were originally equal, Geese used his newfound techniques to crush Jeff with only a few moves. Jeff died in his adopted sons’ arms, imploring them to live in accordance with his teachings.

After he passed away the two brothers swore revenge. But they knew that they were far too young to challenge Geese and his criminal empire.

So they went their separate ways in order to become stronger fighters.

Andy travelled to Japan to study under the Shiranui ninja clan. Meanwhile Terry stayed in South Town and survived on the streets. He also occasionally trained under Tung.

Getting into street fights, he further learned from other brawlers.

Fatal Fury 1: The Geese Howard Era

Ten years later Geese announced that he would hold the first King of Fighters Tournament. Both brothers saw it as the perfect chance to avenge their father.

Andy returned from Japan. He brought along his friend, prize fighter Joe Higashi. Joe would go on to be one of the brother’s closest friends and staunchest of allies.

Andy was originally antagonistic towards Terry. Andy claimed that he was the stronger warrior and should be the one to avenge their father. But the much more tempered Terry was later able to best him in the tournament. This was largely because the collected Terry fought much less rashly.

After defeating several powerful opponents, Terry advanced to the final match. He was pitted against his nemesis atop Geese’s high rise tower.

It was a close match, but Terry prevailed. His final blow knocked Geese out the window of a skyscraper.

Geese was barely able to hang on. Terry tried to save him, but Geese knocked his hand away and presumably fell to his death.

(In the Fatal Fury series, Geese is stated to be dead. But in the King of Fighters series he is alive and well, participating in several tournaments. Given the genre it’s not difficult to leave his presumed death ambiguous.)

(All Fatal Fury: Real Bout games as well as Wild Ambition have all been declared non-canon. They are basically remakes of earlier games with updated graphics and game play. And or course more characters from other games.)

The son of my enemy

After Geese fell to his supposed death, Terry left the building. He was accosted by a young boy who demanded to see his father. Terry wasn’t quite sure how to answer.

This enraged the seven year old boy, who lashed out with a rudimentary Evil Image Charge. This energy punch rush move was one of Geese’s staples.

Even though Terry was exhausted he was still able to side step the attack and knock the child out. Suddenly it clicked. The boy who had attacked him was none other than Geese’s son.

Terry then drove the boy out into the hills. He had a heart to heart talk with him once the kid awoke. He told the boy the full story of what had happened. Rock and his mother had been abandoned by their father years prior so that Geese could pursue his ambition of becoming a crime lord.

Like a Rock

Marie Heinlein, Rock’s mother, had then fallen ill. But Geese refused to help, despite his underworld fortune. When Marie died Rock was determined to confront his father and demand answers.

Upon hearing his story Rock felt a profound mix of loneliness and joy.

Terry immediately recognized that Rock possessed great potential. Further, if the boy was left to grow up unsupervised he could very well follow in his father’s footsteps.

Terry took the boy as his ward and began raising him as well as training him to control his powers.

(Rock appearing after Terry defeated Geese isn’t in the original games. It got retconned in years later in Garou: Mark of the Wolves.)

(Furthermore, Terry often goes on months long training sabbaticals or other missions. But we can assume that Terry’s friends have had a hand in raising Rock, particularly Tung Fu Rue.)

Fatal Fury 2: A Clash with Krauser

After Terry defeated Geese he caught the attention of Wolfgang Krauser. This German nobleman was a peerless fighter, who had grown bored with being unable to find a worthy opponent.

He also was Geese Howard’s half-brother.

Krauser heard that someone had bested his brother, one of the few people to ever give him a real fight. Thus he sought out Terry in order to challenge him. Terry agreed, wishing to test his skills against this mysterious figure.

He was soundly thrashed.

This sudden defeat crushed Terry’s spirit. He sunk into a spiraling depression.

(In Fatal Fury 2: The Movie he became a full blown alcoholic. Terry crawled into a bottle for a large portion of the movie. There’s not evidence of this happening in the game, but it is entirely possible.)

Fatal Fury 2: Get Krauser

Terry eventually resumed training. That was thanks to the constant encouragement from his friends, particularly Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi. He then travelled the world to seek out other worthy fighters, challenge them, and improve his skills.

In particular he fought Kim Kaphwan, who would become a close friend. And Blue Mary Ryan who would later become a love interest of his.

A much more seasoned Terry then came to Krauser’s ancestral castle in Germany – and challenged him to a rematch. The bemused Krauser accepted.

After a very close match, Terry finally prevailed.

(In the Fatal Fury continuity it’s said that Krauser took his own life after this. But in the KoF continuity he went into semi-retirement. In this timelineUsed here in the sense of an alternate history, where events unfold differently, Krauser resurfaced in KoF ’96 to fight alongside Geese and Mr. Big.)

Fatal Fury 3?

The plot line of Fatal Fury 3 involves Chinese boys – the Jin twins.

They get possessed by their ancient ancestors and sent to (dangerous) South Town to retrieve two ancient scrolls. These will grant them the power to best 1,000 men and thus take over the world.

Terry participated in this conflict, but the exact outcome is unknown.

The Jin twins were defeated (possibly by Terry since he’s the main character). Their warlord ancestors were exorcised and the twins went to live and train with Tung Fu Rue.

It is also stated that Geese obtained these scrolls at the end of the conflict and began plotting his revenge against Terry. So perhaps it was instead Geese who defeated the twins.

(This is troubling since again Geese is supposed to be dead in the Fatal Fury series. It’s never explicitly stated, but it is likely that this game and storyline are non-canon.)

History (KoF games)

In 1994 a mysterious sponsor announced a completely new tournament, with new rules. This time it would be a three person team event.

Terry, being a former champion, was or course sent an invitation. His team would represent Italy… for some unknown reason.

(Later games scrapped the whole idea that each team would represent a country. Since most fighters had little or no ties to the country they represented.)

Terry teamed up with his brother Andy and close friend Joe Higashi, as the Hungry Wolf Team. They were only bested in the first tournament by Kyo Kusanagi’s Team Japan.

(At this point Terry kind of gets swept aside to make room for Kyo and his team. He is no longer the main character of the series.)

It is consistently stated that Terry and team are by far one of the best teams in each tournament. So it’s likely that they always placed second or third in the following KoF tournaments for the rest of the 1990s.

Terry also has the distinction of being one of the very few characters to participate in every single KoF game to date.

NEST

In 1997 the Orochi, the demonic antagonist of the tournament from 94-97, were defeated.

Terry then spent more than a year hunting down the mysterious NEST cartel. They were targeting his love interest Blue Mary Ryan.

In later games he is still the Hungry Wolve’s Team leader. But the team roster sees quite a few changes. Different characters, most of whom only appear for one game, rotate in and out.

Garou: Mark of the Wolves

In 2001 South Town was destroyed by the Zero Cannon. This was a giant laser shot from an orbital station.

But the city was rebuilt. Terry and Rock Howard got an apartment there. They roomed and trained together in their spare time.

Despite their age difference Terry acts as more of a big brother to Rock. He’s not really a father figure, allowing Rock far more independence than a parent would.

(This was a relaunch attempt with Terry being the only character to return from the Fatal Fury material.)

Rock’s Coming of Age Story

A new tournament was sponsored by Kain R. Heinlein. Both Terry and Rock advanced to the final match, but on different paths.

Terry wound up fighting Grant, aka Abel Cameron. This devastating battle destroyed Kain’s mansion.

Meanwhile, Rock fought Kain in a temple behind the mansion. After a close battle, Rock emerged victorious. However, it was implied that Kain let him win.

Terry happened upon the scene shortly after Kain was defeated, and revealed that Mr. Heinlein was Rock’s uncle. Heinlein asked Rock to join him on a journey to discover both his true self and his potential.

Terry had strong reservations against this, but also recognized that Rock had matured to manhood. The lad was capable of making his own decisions.

The end result of Rock and Kain’s journey is unrevealed. Kain was evil in that he forced his strong views upon others through both might and black magic. But he also was far more disciplined and fair, and not as much of a megalomaniac, than Geese. Kain is stated to be not completely evil and more of an “anti villain” than an actual villain.

(I have no idea what it means. Don’t ask me.)

It is strongly implied that this path would lead him into conflict with Terry in the future. Subsequent Wild Ambition games would also strongly hint at this.

(This was most likely foreshadowing for a future plot line that would be followed up in the sequel to GMotW. But it spent several years in development hell before ultimately being scrapped.)

Epilogue

Terry continues to participate in all of the later KoF games, but nothing really noteworthy happens to him storyline-wise.

Description

Terry is a white American man in good shape, of average height and athletic build.

His blond hair is long and always worn in a ponytail.

He typically dresses in blue jeans and a white sleeveless T-shirt with a red vest worn over it. He also wears Converse sneakers and a red and white hat. The logo on the hats changed over the years.

He also wears his most prized possession, the sparring gloves that he received from his adoptive father, Jeff Bogard.

He fits many Japanese stereotypes for an American character in appearance, personality and speech. A lot of his dialogue is saying “okay”.

Quotes

“I won’t lose until I avenge my father’s death !”

“Hey, c’mon c’mon !”

“Here’s the big one ! Buster Wolf !”

Geese: “Terry Bogard ?… Someone with some backbone, finally.”
Terry: “Geese ! I’m gonna beat you and chase you out of South Town !”
Geese: “Gonna go back to the chaos of the slums ? The Legendary Hungry Wolf.”
Terry: “Sounds as though you’re saying the city’s prosperity is due to you. I’ll settle this by tearing you to pieces.”

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