Street Fighter: The Dark Side of the Street · @StevenManeVox
23rd Nov 2018 from TwitLonger
Street Fighter: The Horror Behind Ken's Blue Eyes
I've been wanting to write a Ken speculation for some time, and unfortunately for me, he is one of the most open characters in the entire series. It's nearly impossible to come up with a theory because there isn't very much to theorize about. However, there is one seemingly minor inconsistency that could end up playing a huge factor in the plot, or should I say two: his eyes. Chalk it up to design oversight, but for whatever reason, his eyes keep changing from brown to blue and back again. Even if it was simply miscommunication on Capcom's part, there is one part we can not ignore: this is canon now. Everyone dyes their hair and wears contacts? Is that why Elena has white hair and blue eyes, even though it's clear she prefers to be NATURAL? (She has a mild form of Waardenburg Syndrome; I showed this in one of my previous theories.) We can simply say Ken wears contacts, but it's out of character for him. We could say he took a more expensive route, and had laser eye surgery to change his eyes to blue, didn't like it, and reversed the procedure. There are articles you can look up on Google that are written about the people who have done this, and the consequences they ended up with.
However, I see this as yet another opportunity to point out how an inconsistency links to the current storyline, and why it actually makes sense in the overall lore. In all of his trolling glory, it's something that Yoshinori Ono would do to really freak people out. He may no longer be the head guy, but he still has a hand in the game's design. This is his brainchild, and he loves to screw with people's minds. Him and I are part of the same cloth. If I was given the opportunity to work with Street Fighter's lore, I would make the story such a mindscrew that even those who don't pay attention to the game's lore would be very interested to see what comes next (and I have an inkling on who I should reach out to to get advice from).
As it turns out, with the storyline the way it is now, we have evidence that Ken's eye color inconsistency is a result of something that happened in-game. The question is, "What?" At first, I was under the impression that Q and Ken were the same person, with the Ken we all know and love being an imposter, and the real Ken Masters being trapped in the Q mask, forcefully torn from his family and friends and becoming a servant for G. However, after talking to someone who knows Street Fighter lore far more deeply than I do, he pointed out several inconsistencies. Capcom can still go this route if they choose; they just need to add more backstory. However, there is far stronger evidence for something else: that Ken himself is already a servant of G. He just doesn't know it.
For starters, G's abilities involve his own eye color changing from purple to blue and back, and if Q is any indication, G has the power to change other people's eye color too. It's when Ken fights in-game, however, when his eyes are blue (this is especially relevant in SF4). What does this mean? It means G is using his power to scout other fighters through Ken's eyes, and when Ken gets into a fight, G can sense it and activate his abilities.
"Wait!," you say. "G wasn't in SF4! So how is this possible?" Simple. G got to him earlier, in the previous game: Street Fighter II.
"But G wasn't in Street Fighter II either!" You're right. G wasn't in Street Fighter II.
Q was.
The man in the coat and hat in Ken's stage has always been speculated to be Q, and this has been more or less confirmed by Capcom in a CFN page, specifically Wayne Nakamura's. https://game.capcom.com/cfn/sfv/column/132370?lang=en
In other words, Q has been in close contact with Ken since SFII, and based on my previous theory on G, if G can control the movements of Q, he can also give Q some fragment of his powers as well, like his ability to take control with a mere touch: a brush on the shoulder, a tap on the hand as he walks by, a formal handshake. One touch is all Q needs for Ken to be under G's influence.
There is one nagging piece of the puzzle that must be addressed though. If Ken is under G's influence, why is his personality unchanged? Why isn't he a robot, even in battle? Simple: it's not time yet for G to make his move. My biggest inconsistency in my last theory was the fact that Rashid and Menat both fought him, and neither were turned into Q's. They still have their personalities.
G is biding his time to take them over as well. Ken, Rashid, Menat, Dan, Hakan, and Elena. All are in danger of being transformed into Q's. Just because Ken and Elena weren't Q's in Third Strike doesn't mean they won't be. They're completely unaware of it happening.
One last thing to keep in mind is that G's Footube channel is the most dangerous site to be on, especially if you're an influential fighter. Everyone, save Menat, has some sort of influence over other people. Ken is a famous martial arts master and hotel tycoon, Rashid and Elena are royalty, Dan appears to have an influence over students if G's ending is any indication (possibly students who want to learn at his dojo), and Hakan is a rich oil merchant. Those are the types of people with connections that G wants to control. Their influence will convince others to follow G willingly, and eventually, he will have enough influential people to gain him many servants to go through with his plans.
And Ken doesn't know it all starts with him.