I’m one of those gamers who enjoy fighting games for their story modes. And I’ve seen a lot of stupid shit in fighting games that have come full circle and become great because of how hilariously they flesh out their larger-than-life characters. Street Fighter 6 is doing whatever the opposite of that is with Alex in Street Fighter 6.
Alex is a character I don’t think about often in the Street Fighter mythos. He’s the other blonde guy with a couple of cool wrestling moves and a Hulk Hogan bandana. Otherwise, he’s pretty blah. My lukewarm feelings about Alex actually work in Capcom’s favor. They give the team a perfect opportunity to retool his moveset and characterization in a way that makes even players like me rubberneck when he shows up in SF6. The overhaul they gave Alex in its latest game was the kind that makes the “I’m getting into fighting games for real this time” crowd point to him as the shot their empty promises are riding on.
Everything about Alex right out of the box was primo Isaiah-bait. Chief among them is his motion capture work by All Elite Wrestling’s Kenny “By God” Omega. With a more robust wrassling moveset that adds depth to his otherwise forgettable character, it made him a must-play character for scrublords like myself, just for the novelty of having Omega hit a spear. Of course, all those efforts feel pointless because his story mode is a series of backflips, shoehorning in an incestuous family reveal that gives me the ick the more I think about it.
You see, Alex was an orphan after losing his parents at a young age. He was later adopted by Tom, a family friend of his cadaverific parents, and an NPC who debuted back in 1997's Street Fighter III: New Generation.
But I don’t really give a shit about Tom (for now); what I give a shit about is his daughter, Patricia. While training, Alex would spend the rest of his life trying to be as good a fighter as his adoptive father, as his adoptive sister watched on. Their relationship, up to this point in the SF mythos, was that of a supportive found family, with Patricia cheering Alex on as Alex promised Tom he’d protect Patricia. Basic shonen anime shit. I’ve played these games before.
When we jump ahead to Alex in SF6, he’s adopted the heelish persona of a professional wrestler. His moves hit with extreme prejudice, and he’s much more of a showboaty jerk. That is to say, he’s adjusted well to his new role. When Alex returns home to Patricia in his World Tour story mode, the camera pans down to her pregnant belly. They’re gonna have a daughter. Turns out the “found” in their familial relationship became a placeholder for the classic case of “it’s not by blood” incest storyline. While this isn’t a unique twist, especially in anime-style works, things get a lot more complicated when the game reveals that there are more levels to Alex and Patricia’s relationship.
As Automaton Media points out, Tom is Alex’s mom's cousin. So, alongside Alex and Patricia being future parents who started out as adoptive siblings— depicting a five-year-old Alex bouncing Patricia on his knee at the age of zero which becomes grosser the more that you think about Alex impregnating her—they’re also second cousins. This revelation hit me like a brick. Getting married to one’s adoptive sister is already pretty weird. They did not have to also be actually related.
I get it, second-cousin marriages happen in the real world. But the hoops someone at Capcom had to go through writing his story mode and adding that they’re also blood-related was a hat on a hat, and that’s grounds for character assassination for anyone who had him as their main. Alex’s bio says he likes family and training and hates annoying people, but I don’t think he considered how annoying his life update would be to everyone playing the game.
Posting my ick over the whole affair on Twitter led to some helpful rando breaking out the cousin chart as if the 23andMe family tree prop would change my mind. Nah, fam. Incest by both the spirit and the letter is grounds for me to not wanna not wanna fuck with an Alex main.
