Vega (Street Fighter)

Vega is a character from the Street Fighter franchise.

Vega was born to a privileged noble family in Spain. For reasons undisclosed, their status dwindled, causing Vega's mother to remarry for financial security. Growing up to the arts of hunting, later as he matured, Vega studied bullfighting, a cultural tradition, finding the sport more exciting and honorable in being able to dispatch his prey up close with his own might. Afterward, he went to Japan and learned ninjutsu, a style he believed meshed well with his natural grace and agility. Combining bullfighting with ninjutsu, Vega went into an underground cage fighting circuit, and quickly became one of the best.

His ugly stepfather murdered his beautiful mother because he felt she did not respect him, and Vega killed him in return. The incident warped his mind, and he developed a dual personality: honorable nobleman by day, sadistic murderer by night. It also triggered Vega's obsession with beauty as a wonderful trait, as well as his belief that ugliness is something evil that should be purged.

Appearance
Vega is a tall, strikingly handsome young man with long hair that is braided into a ponytail. His hair has switched between brown and blond through various Street Fighter media. In the Street Fighter II series, Vega's hair is colored brown in the sprites, but colored blond in the endings that feature him. The comics give him blond hair, as do Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Street Fighter V. In Street Fighter IV, Vega has brown hair in both the cutscenes and the gameplay. He wears murrey and yellow ceremonial trousers, a red sash, loafers, and white leggings of a matador, suggesting his involvement with bullfighting. This decorative garb offers matadors ease of movement, and is therefore ideal for Vega's acrobatic maneuvers. Vega also has a purple snake tattoo on his chest which circles his left arm, and on his right arm and both his wrists he wears gold-colored armlets. The tattoo shows him to be a villain to a Japanese audience, where body tattoos are usually worn by Yakuza members. In Capcom vs. SNK 2, as a win pose, Vega will hold his arm out, with the tattoo coming to life and hissing at the opponent.

Early sketches suggest that Vega was going to resemble a medieval knight wearing a full suit of armor. This idea was scrapped, as Street Fighter was about fighters from all over the world, not from different time periods. There are a few remnants of this concept in Vega's final design, specifically a mask and a sharp metal claw. A similar type of weapon was used by Geki in the original Street Fighter, which has led to speculation that Vega received some training from Geki.

Vega has a white mask that is lacking in facial features or expressions. It is difficult to tell how durable his mask is. On one hand, Vega is able to crush it to dust with one hand if he loses due to a time over in Street Fighter Alpha 3. On the other hand, it takes several hits before the mask falls off and, even then, he can easily pick up and reapply the mask, with no apparent lasting damage.

Much like Sagat's eyepatch in earlier games, Vega's claw will always appear on whatever arm matches the direction he is facing (if he is looking to left side of the screen, it will appear on his left arm, and if he's looking right, it will be on his right) due to sprite mirroring. In the Street Fighter EX series, it will always be on his right arm. In Street Fighter IV, however, he changes his claw every time he switches sides, without mirroring; this can be seen in his tattoo, his accessories, and in the mark on his mask. Curiously enough, during the versus screen, his portrait won't be mirroring all the accessories either, with the unique exception of his claws.

In Street Fighter V, Vega retains his traditional matador pants and red waist sash but is now wearing a partially opened white shirt. The purple snake tattoo that encircles his torso can still be partially seen. His alternate costume is an altered version of his outfit. The sleeves of his frill shirt are short and his signature mask is replaced with a golden opera mask. His blond hair is tied in a slick back in a ponytail with a long single fringe in the center of his head.

His Halloween DLC costume has him wear a long red coat, a black formal suit with a white tie and black boots. He also wears white gloves and a magician hat on his head. While wearing this outfit, Vega can fight with or without his long coat.

Personality
Vega is vain, overconfident, and highly convinced of his own abilities, almost to the point of megalomania. He is also incredibly sadistic and takes great pleasure in seeing the ugly murdered, and preferably mutilated. He often has a stone-cold demeanor, and does not show a wide range of emotions. His narcissism and disdain for anything lacking elegance causes him to clash with fellow Shadaloo member Balrog due to the latter's boorish nature.

Vega's vanity is demonstrated in how he uses his mask. He wears the mask not to conceal his identity, but to protect his face from scarring or bruising during battle, so that he can more easily view himself as perfect-looking. Vega often removes it after fights during his win poses, and his face is at least partially, if not fully, exposed in some of his character-select mugshots as well as some of his individual endings. Additionally, many characters are able to recognize Vega even if they never see him without his mask. In some games, he can remove the mask during battle.

Vega's unbridled and solipsistic ego is shown even in his taste in interior decor, as his mansion is adorned with portraits, all of himself. Vega is also good at adopting elegant and gentlemanly mannerisms, likely because of his noble background. He has also been described as intelligent and sophisticated.[8] Additionally, he is also attracted to and impressed by the beauty and strength of young women, notably Chun-Li and Cammy; he frequently compliments them on their appearances. At the same time, he seems to derive pleasure from causing pain and despair to both Chun-Li and Cammy, and even enjoys taunting them. With men, on the other hand, Vega tends to completely look down upon them and is seen constantly scolding their fighting abilities and "ugliness" in his win quotes, considering his looks and skills to be superior.

He also harbors a tragic side. The family trauma he experienced molded his fragile mind to perceive physical unattractiveness not only as repulsive, but also as a threat. With his attractive mother murdered at the hands of his unattractive stepfather, ugliness came to represent evil and cowardice, while beauty represented heroism and strength. This also implies that Vega's hatred of anything "ugly" may actually be a manifestation of post-traumatic stress disorder. It has also been said that Vega's love of beauty is at least partially rooted in the way he was raised by his mother.

In Super Street Fighter IV, Vega shows a small amount of respect for Guy in his Arcade Mode win quote, saying he expected better of him. While this is surprising considering his personality, it makes sense since both are masters of ninjutsu, and they are arguably the two most agile Street Fighter characters. Additionally, some, if not all, of Vega's win quotes against other ninja fighters suggest that he judges them based on their skills and abilities with the art of ninjutsu (as well as their appearance).

Abilities
Vega's fighting style, officially referred as "Spanish Ninjutsu", is a blend of ninjutsu and bullfighting, thus earning him the nickname "Spanish Ninja".

Moveset
Vega is one of the fastest and most agile characters in the Street Fighter series, but also one of the most delicate; his defensive rating is low compared to most of the other characters to balance his incredible speed. Vega is also one of the few weapon users in the series, and the only one that appears in the Street Fighter II series.

Vega's overall style uses a mix of a keepaway game and quick lunges at the opponent. Vega has a powerful air game based on his Flying Barcelona Attack and Sky High Claw, and is more than agile enough to get around the opponent's attacks and strike with rapid succession, leading to potentially devastating setups, confusing cross-ups, or long-range poking attacks with the reach advantage provided by his claw. However, his long reach can easily be beaten out with a counterattack at the right moment, and could leave Vega helpless to an aggressive opponent; most of Vega's moves are hard to maintain a position with, and are not too safe on block. In addition to various airborne attacks, Vega is equipped with low ground attacks such as the Scarlet Terror and Rolling Crystal Flash that can be used to keep the foe off-balance, and he can use long and short Back Slashes to backflip around attacks. In Street Fighter V, Vega is no longer a charge character, making nearly all of his moves easier to pull off

Trivia

 * Due to how he is named differently in varying regions, he is known in the international community as "Claw".


 * In Super Street Fighter IV, Vega's second alternate costume bears some resemblance to Zorro.


 * In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Vega is referenced in Ryu's win quote against Wolverine.


 * Vega might be the only character in the Street Fighter franchise who is not completely right-handed. Most of his official illustrations place the claw on his left hand, while in Street Fighter V, the claw appears on his right hand. This suggests that Vega is either an ambidextrous individual or, at the very least, a left-hander who has learnt how to use the right hand as a result of the real-life social stigma against "southpaws".


 * Vega is the only character in the Street Fighter series who is able to interact with his stage.


 * In the 1994 Street Fighter film, Vega works for Sagat in the underground fighting ring instead of working for M. Bison in Shadaloo.


 * The home version of Street Fighter: The Movie is the only game where Vega does not wear his mask.


 * Vega shares his birthday with Dudley.


 * Vega's normal throws are similar to Cammy's; both having a Suplex and a Frankensteiner.


 * Sergei, from Capcom's 3D beat 'em up game Asura's Wrath, share a similar personality and character traits with Vega.


 * Vega's "Fallen Balrog" form (or a design similar to it) can be seen in a variant cover for issue #11 of UDON's Street Fighter Unlimited.


 * Vega's Rolling Crystal Flash special attack is very similar to Gen's Jyasen special attack, as both attacks have the same input, start off with consecutive rolls, and end with a punch attack.
 * In Street Fighter V, Vega no longer has access to Rolling Crystal Flash but instead has a new move called Crimson Terror which overall fits the same role as its predecessor, except that the move now ends with a kick instead of a claw lunge.


 * In those versions of Street Fighter II that make Vega playable, his country of origin (Spain) is represented by the flag that was used during the reign of Francisco Franco (1936-1975), and was declared unconstitutional well before the release of those updates to the game. The usage of a flag associated with a dictator may have been a reference to Vega's status as a villain, or simply an inability to recreate the complex coat of arms design of the modern flag with the graphics at the time.


 * Vega is one of the few characters in the original Street Fighter IV game who has one rival (in his case, Chun-Li) throughout the whole sub-series.
 * In the Japanese World Warrior for the Super Nintendo, characters were shown with more information, Vega himself is the only character specifically mentioned in the "dislikes" section of another character, namely Chun-Li's.