They didn't give him a shot because they're abelist.

“…pretty much goes nowhere.” SF in game storytelling in a nutshell.

Ryu is Street Fighter. When I hear the name Street Fighter, I immediately think of Ryu.

We saw a glimpse of how Abel's personality could be fixed in SFxT. Guile picked him for his serious nature, only to find the guy is awkward in a "little confused, but he's got the spirit" way. When he sees Kuma, he puts the mission on the line just to pet the bear. This would've been a great angle, giving this towering dude a childlike sense of wonder without making him dumb. Even though he was supposed to be a killing machine, he's moved past enjoying the little things life in ways we take for granted. I don't know if it's the best angle, but it's better than NOTHING.

If you can describe Abel in 3 words: Heartless (Super) Soulless (Ultra 1) Breathless (Ultra 2)

I only just noticed, but what's up with all the next generation protagonists being blonde MMA guys with scars? (Abel, Alex, Luke) Someone at Capcom has a type

Abels problem is his design, his clothes are boring as hell, if he had a more interesting design people won't care how boring he is

As far as Abel and Seth looking the same, they literally do it's just that Abel actually has skin lol.

I honestly never thought Abel was SF4 main character loolll I just thought it was still Ryu with Abel just being one of the new characters along for the ride.

Abel was interesting in SFxT. There he was just a kooky cloudcuckoolander who gushes over furry animals and space aliens. This even makes him more Seth's opposite since he's so serious and laser-focused on his goals. Capcom should have stuck with this characterization.

My man honestly wants to claim that Abel is the forgettable main character and then casually drops that Rashid was supposed to be the main character of SF5. No, sorry, Rashid is the worse main character in that case. He is, in fact, the only main character that I had no idea was supposed to be main character.

I thought Abel recognized the sonic boom because Seth could do it so either he was being taught to learn it like him in the past or just saw a Seth clone do it before he escaped

Since Abel wasn't in Ties that Bind I wasn't even aware he was the main character lmao

They should have made Illuminati Nash the one to rescue Abel. And Abel should have been the one to direct Guile to Nash. That's the perfect resolution to two different storylines. Nash would have had a proper reunion with Guile this way. Remember all the build-up when Nash was first announced for SF5? THAT WAS HYPE! Capcom manages to fuck up everything promising, though.

Even with his role in the story mode, I had no idea that Rashid was considered the main character of SF5. I've been a longtime fan of Street Fighter's lore but holy fuck, Capcom itself cannot tell a SF story for shit!

Let's be honest, though. Capcom did a terrible job of marketing Abel as the new main character in SF4. TERRIBLE job. Outside of the him being the default cursor selection in the character select screen, we had no idea he was supposed to be the main character. Without extensive research, we had no idea Rashid was the main character of SF5. They did well with Luke in SF6, and did okay with Alex in SF3 Third Strike but it otherwise still felt they were marketing Ryu as the hero in almost every other entry except 6.

Since Ed returned in sf6 and looked cooler than his last appearance, I wouldn’t mind Abel returning. After all, sf6 Ed is proof you can make unpopular characters cooler.

6:08 Capcom is notorious for giving Ryu hero moments that should have went to other characters. In 3rd strike in-game dialogue between Chun-li and Urien insinuates that Chun-li played a major role in Bison/Shadaloo's collapse, then in Street Fighter 5 in the story, we see it was mainly Nash and Ryu with Ryu getting the major hero moment that put away Bison for good.

The fact that Abel was to supposed to RVD and Fedor wasn't known to me until just now....honestly Capcom should have leaned into this more at the time...and younger me would have totally dug this...

Classic case of the OG World Warriors dependance and Capcom always chasing the newer generation market with their protagonist poser boys whose name is not ryu. the ghost of street fighter 3 criticism all over again

The minute they abandoned the original design that had a clear message behind it in exchange for a boring incohesive mishmash of plucking pieces from irl sources, he was doomed. You’d remember the one time SF had a tiny protagonist. You don’t remember the guy who doesn’t even manage stand out in the smaller lineup from the original version of IV.

Also, Abel background is to similar to Cammy. A blonde amnesiac european with conections with the main villain. He loves dogs while Cammy loves cats.

Very interesting video but i think it could easily be summed up as "Abel had a boring visual design, boring in game personality, and none of his moves had any flair." He doesnt fulfill any power fantasy that most players might have and his gameplay wasnt good enough to compensate for that.

Actually, Capcom Street Fighter's story telling is weak most of the time, unlike SNK who always try to keeps the dots connected

If you’re interested, I’d love a companion piece that explores how and why C. Viper-who was essentially posited as the deuteragonist to Abel’s protagonist-similarly fell short. The most obvious answer is the introduction of Juri, but even before she came along, Viper’s depiction in The Ties That Bind makes her feel, in my opinion, even more poorly executed as a character than Abel, given that he at least comes across as inoffensive by comparison.

On the subject of Alex (3:35), I think Valle observed that the character wasnt that popular during Street Fighter III's heyday and that the pro-Alex sentiment is recent.

Too bad we didn't get the original version of Abel even if it's a bit strange. Way less bland and boring than what we got lol

Abel was a pretty cool MC, just not fleshed out enough... Abel has a really cute personality, even though he had an absolutely ROUGH time in his past, yet he still remained optimistic. guy loves cute lil pups AND even bears! (as seen SF X Tekken, and idc if its non-canon its ABSOLUTELY in character for him) overall, hes got a good base. the first male bison doll (excluding seth), a frenchman who is also a grappler, and a really unique one at that, who has little to none of his past memories, but its shown he still has a ton of humanity in him, despite everything. If Capcom gave him more time to shine, he'd be waaay more popular than he is now. heres to hope him and Alex return in sf6

Just a head up, in the official Street Fighter timeline, as well as relationships between characters graphs, it states that Nash rescued Abel 5 years prior to SF4. So that detail is still canonical, and apparently happened during Alpha 3 events.

Pretty sure Seth was named after Seth Killian, a quick google search shows the below: The character is named after Seth Killian, Capcom's former senior manager. Killian explained in an interview dated April 2009 that it was not his idea to have the character named after himself, though he felt honored as a Street Fighter fan for being part of the series' history.

Now i WISH they kept Abel’s original design. It would’ve helped to make Abel more recognizable and memorable due to him looking different from the other protagonists.

I always thought Nash was the main protagonist in SFV.

Abel was such a cool character. I liked his rush down playstyle. I hope he comes back in SF6

The theory proposed here would fix both remy and abel, Have abel be a skilled but unknown fighter that came under shadaloo's radar and was captured and used as a base for the characters like seth, have them wipe his memory and have shadaloo tell remy and his sister that he abandoned them and was killed, Have abel break out of shadaloo's control and help take down the orginization alongside characters like c viper and chun li (Spy's and agents, it makes sense that they would team up and it would give viper something more to do) But abel still does not remember his past, so he goes on a journey to discover who he is, During this time remy has become angry at his father and the world for his father dying, And after his sister dies he discovers that his father is actually alive and has been alive this entire time, Have remy attack abel (Who at this time has regained most of his memory) And have the 2 reconcile after their fight, It sucks that capcom seemingly picks their lore by blindly picking it from a grab bag and that street fighter 6 is seemingly an attempt to move on from the various plot threads of the past

Why are Bison's clones always blonde?

Abel reminds me of Taven (Mortal Kombat), because of how bland he looks. His personality doesn't help him 😅 Abel IS the definition of plain. I even prefer Rufus over Abel. At least Rufus makes me feel something.

If Daigo the beast hadn't openly badmouthed the character, perhaps Capcom would have given Abel a chance to succeed.

That theory about Abel and Remy sounds so good

Abel was the most bland as f character EVER

A clone with amnesia!! Who writes this stuff??

Alex, a Hulk Hogan tribute with grappling specials. "He's not a grappler".

Abel being Remy's long lost father sounds like typical MatPat theory.

Rashid is the protag of V? But he didn't do anything meaningful and the story ends up being about Ryu and the power of nothingness.

Not for nothin but I’ve always loved Abel growing up. His theme, his voice, the soulless super, his potential connection with Nash. I wanted to know more. You posed some interesting thoughts of what could have been or what was supposed to be. There’s a structure of story events you’d laid out that I’d like to ask permission to use to potentially later down the road make a comic dub SF4 story focused on Abel.

You asked the question, so I say we move on. If they didn't bother to tie up his loose ends in V, why bother now. The idea of Remmy being his son is pretty neat though.

This was great! Love the deep dive videos into these characters, keep up the good work EventHubs!👍

Problem with the Remy connection- Remy's moves seem to be "light" and "darkness" connected, and not sound/wind (sonic) connected. For instance, his projectile is the "Light of Virtue". Thst said..with how everyone is related to everyone in SF, so I wouldn't be surprised lol

His step kick BNB was a 1-frame link. 😬

Un-Able to have any kind of lasting impressions 😥

Wait... Rashid is the main character of 5? Huh?

It's so wild that, between the Transfem Judo Fighter and King Cobra, SF4 had great charqcter designs arguable usurped by characters that are completely irrelevant now (Abel/Rufus).

They could bring back older man Abel who remembers how to do quarter circle booms, with a command grab...

6:02 “spoilers” 💀

Man, I love fighting game lore. No matter how convoluted it gets sometimes.

Fixing Abel Make him the opposite of Seth, a move stealer, by making him the MMA fighter picking up moves from friends and others into his moveset. Take characters people do not like enough to bring back as his background pals and use their moves. Take El furte and Hakan grabs and Spin/strikes from Rufus all to his strike/grab style then other low-tier fellas for specials. This would also make him a world explorer with quotes that reference these characters and would help the build-fighter move expansion.

A main character who did not even know his own story. His main trait is confusion.

What if the mercenary that helped Abel was actually Remy's father?

0:06 Hell, I'd argue that Ryu wasn't even the protagonist of Street FIghter 2. Bison is *not* Ryu's villain, he doesn't know who Bison is, he doesn't care. Bison belongs to Chun Li, Guile and Cammy (And eventually Nash and Juri).

your theory would be awesome, never heard before (as a french players who's mains Remy in 3.3). Except that, i always loved Abel for his music, gameplay and i don't know my empathy to him. Maybe an incomplete character but not bad at all !

They tried to do another Cammy-esk idea backstory but flopped.

Street Fighter has a serious problem with characters. And before anyone start to throw a fit, bear with me, i'm NOT saying the games are bad (in fact i'm still having a blast with SF VI) but character wise they are always lacking in some regards. I get that fighting games are not precisely Shakespeare with their stories, however there's other series, specially lately that are doing a great job polishing story modes, individual arcs and even character design to do better characters. And is not like SF can't do better, there's plenty of SF characters that have a great lore, personality and design that sometimes even goes toe to toe with gameplay. But still there's a lot of instances were they became lazy with it and is a shame because Capcom is still doing a ton of money with the series and the fans deserve better.

I wonder what would have happened if they kept the original design. Would have Capcom gone a different direction with character story or how they play? Would he become more popular somehow? So many questions that will never get answered

You guys should do more character specific episodes. I enjoy these

I really like that tie in idea you had with Remy. It’s would be cool to watch a movie about Able with that theory

Abel didn't have to explain to Guile where he saw the Sonic Boom because you literally fight the guy that uses it after the Rival fight. Seth.

Wish we got original design for able he stands out more

Another uninspired blonde character design with no personality. His moveset was pretty good though. I'd have rather seen him return than Ed

This was great. More character vids like this plz 🙏

I really enjoy this style of video. Keep up the good work you dinosaur!

Has he forgotten that Seth can do the Sonic Boom as well? I always assumed thats were Abel had seen it before since he recognized Seth's appearance from before in his past. Least as one of the options for his story.

Capcom just can’t write a coherent story but design? Able looks awesome plays awesome ( he’s a rekka grappler!!!) which sux because manon just sucks; also Alex was not popular it’s why he ,just like able, never felt like the protagonist

The description you give of the grappler archetype at the start fits perfectly with the idea that the weak can overcome the strong and win, they had it served yet they decided to make a boring character instead lol

...too bad they didn't tie Abel into Manon's back story ...I like the idea of Remy being his child ...maybe Manon could have been Remy's younger sister who was raised as an only child (...Manon's story is mostly mother-centric ...there's still nothing regarding her father yet ...?) ...ah well, just spit-balling here 😅

For some reason back in the day I thought C. Viper was more so pushed, especially with her appearing in MvC3. That said, I much prefer Abels concept design. Abel always looked like the most generic "just a guy" character in the franchise.

Lol saying "brainless" while showing a clip of Breathless. That's a throwback

I love his design and play style but absolutely hated his lack of character and personality I hope he returns with a glow up in SF6

Capcom need to realise ryu is the face of street fighter. The fact he’s not on the cover of SF6 is just weird. It should ryu at least along with Ken would’ve been a 10/10 cover.

I was a hard Abel main back when SF IV was the thing. He was my first grapple character, and he really showed out, moveset wise.

The only reason i remember Abel is his theme. He honestly felt like a complete after thought.

Street Fighter boardroom meeting: "Should we build more lore behind the already massive pool of characters we have? Or just bring in new characters for the sake of it?" "..... New characters."

there might be a way to save not only the name & moveset of this street fighter character but also his story if capcom were to write him as a shadaloo clone of the father who supposedly "abandon" remy & his sister having said clone genetically design to have less if not no memory at all, that way most if not all abel's general character bio can receive at very least some redemption for poor protagonist execution by having remy's father not only be playable in street fighter 6 while having a bit of an older abel appearance & taking his name however have it be short for something story wise but also have him be a brawler while slightly altering abel's moveset at very least & implement sonic boom so to canonically have relevance with guile, charlie nash & remy

And they gave up on the character, retconning Charlie as his adoptive father and mentor resulting in the absolute sacrilege done unto him in V.

I thought when Abel was confronting Guile about the sonic boom, it was a connection to Seth as opposed to Charlie since Seth throws booms and has more connection to him canonically

I enjoyed playing Abel, although he was my second to Fei Long. In certain matches Fei was massively disadvantaged so Abel provided a more balanced Vs match. I agree. I felt he was under-utilised by Capcom. I always wondered if Remi was Abel's long lost son...lol

I just don't get this approach to worldbuilding, like... why? What's the point to all this? It's such a shame because there are so many cool characters like Akuma, Cammy... but they are surrounded by an absolute brainrot of a story.

If there’s anything I’d like to add up, characters whose main move sets are Judo Fighting Style tends to be a boring curse cause when you apply that on fiction it’s either not impactful only ends up being too funny or unrealistic. Unlike some move sets who are really striking too say.

Street fighter alpha 3.......that's where he came from. At the end of alpha 3, they were destroying Bison's base. Guile was part of that memory of him seeing the sonic boom because he may have seen Guile and Bison fighting. And Able was saved by Guile. But, Guile doesn't remember him either because it's been years since he's seen him.

I actually didn't know that Rashid was SFV's hero

I honestly never knew Abel was portrayed to be SFIV’s main protagonist. Probably because most supporting material for SF, has Ryu as the title character. Which is expected, as he is the face of the franchise. And I agree, for a “main protagonist” Abel just wasn’t utilized well. With Alex, it was pretty evident that he was the face of SFIII as he is featured numerous times in the openings, Rashid was present prominently throughout SFV story mode, and Luke is the cover star of SFVI. But Abel literally had nothing

I kinda liked Abel…if they gave him his original design or approached him more likable I would’ve mained him for sure

Hold up, did you just say "spoilers" for a 2000 year old story lol? But excellent content here

I knew about Abel's beta design but I didn't know he was supposed to be reverse Makoto.

Being a good protagonist... Something he just wasn't *Abel* to do 😅

It really sucks that they didn't do anything with Abel. I tried him in SF4 and had a lot of fun learning him. The thought that he could've been Remy's father would have been a really cool way to tie 3rd Strike back into everything before the events of SF5. But alas, another good idea lost to the winds of indifference.

I think originally when it was being conceptualized, they were going to go full force with Abel’s story, but then ono, wanted to recapture that street fighter II audience, so they just abandoned it to put the mainstays at the forefront, that’s just my theory though.

I frequently forget Abel even exists. Whenever I go to the Ultra Street Fighter IV character themes playlist (his theme is first because it goes in alphabetical order until we get to the Arcade Edition characters), my mind just goes “oh yeah Abel is a thing”. He’s so bland and inoffensive that he might just be the most forgettable character in the entire series. At least characters like FANG and Rufus have traits about them I can hate, that’s SOMETHING.

Honestly I had no clue Abel was a protagonist for SF4 and I had played it a lot. No personality and nothing that really screamed “hey look at me I’m the main guy”. It didn’t help that playing through Arcade they did t really flesh out how each character would interact with him being a protagonist. The most memorable interaction for me was “Hey I’ve seen that so where before”. I think if they 1 - went down the full memory, searching for SIN for whatever reason it would have been more meaningful and easier to write into imo. Instead we get a played out SFtroupe (a la Cammy/Juni/Dolls) of looking for bad guy because no memory only to find out I was their spare body. The character had potential, I just don’t think they were really focused on story telling rather than just letting the game go so people could play in tournaments. I honestly, thought C Viper was the main character because in the few cutscenes/ character interactions she was fleshed out and had personality, but also because Capcom pushed her so hard in MVC/etc. But also because she had amazing gameplay design for SF4 (even if it was a little MVC). Idk

Remy for street fighter 6

I recall the guys at the website fighters gen thought Abel was a reworked Joe from street fighter 1.

Wow, this was really interesting! I didn't know this was the intention of Abel! Damn, that's disappointing it looks like their willing to abandon it. The 3rd Strike squad was fresh, but it was nice to see that some of them had ties to previous fighters. It'd make sense that some of them would find love and maybe had children. I've been a fan since I played in Street Fighter 1 at the arcade. I've been with them since the beginning. So I want the story to be good, it makes me excited following these characters.