Guile

**Guile** (ガイル *Gairu*?) is a video game character from the *Street Fighter* series, first appearing in *Street Fighter II*. He is a major in the United States Air Force whose goal is to finish the criminal organization Shadaloo, while at the same time investigating the whereabouts of his best friend Charlie Nash.

## Biography

### Appearance

Early *Street Fighter II* sketches and notes suggest that Guile was developed specifically to appeal to American fans. His physical appearance is strikingly different from the many Asian characters in the *Street Fighter* series, with light blue eyes (green in Street Fighter V) without eyebrows, a chiseled jaw, a permanent expression of bad mood on the face, and his most recognizable feature: a particularly tall flattop haircut. The length of Guile's hair varies greatly from appearance to appearance; it is relatively realistic in *Street Fighter II*, and impossibly tall in *SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos*. Capcom source books suggest that Guile's famous hairdo is styled with a special-order army hair spray to keep it up (though he ends up fixing it quickly after a match).

Guile's all-American image includes military fatigues and United States flag tattoos on each shoulder; following standard United States military protocol, the stars are on the left hand side to give the illusion that the flag is flying 'towards' battle. The image of the uniformed American Airman is well known in Japan due to the number of United States Armed Forces bases present in that country.

Guile wears Charlie's dog tag alongside his own; in *Street Fighter IV*, one of Guile's alternate costumes resembles Charlie's costume.

In *Street Fighter V*, Guile wears a white military button shirt with dark blue emblems in each sides, a matching dark blue tie on the collar with 'US' emblems in each sides, dark blue military pants with a black belt on his waist and black combat shoes. He wears his signature sports sunglasses as part of his default costume and wears a blue ID with his imprinted full name on the right side and a gold eagle badge on the left. His first alternate costume is his classic attire in *Street Fighter II* and his second costume has him wearing a brown flak vest with a blue gray army jumpsuit with the sleeves are rolled up into cuffs and a white undershirt. He maintains wearing his sports sunglasses and black combat shoes from his primary outfit and wears Charlie's dogtag and his black watch from his primary outfit.

### Personality

Guile is a tough man, both physically and mentally, who takes pride in family, and is a loving husband and father to his family. A stoic man at heart, Guile's calm and emotionless exterior actually hides intense feelings, especially the fury after Charlie's death. Although loyal to the Air Force and the United States, Guile is extremely persistent. He always seeks to get the bottom of the matter, especially concerning Shadaloo, M. Bison and what happened with Charlie Nash, which has led to problems with his superiors (although they have high respect and esteem to him) and has caused pain to his family, this hurts him deeply.

In *Street Fighter X Tekken*, it is revealed that he is scared of bears, while he states in his win quote toward Dee Jay in *Super Street Fighter IV*that he only likes country music.

In *Street Fighter V*, Guile is shown to be a stoic and very focused person, always giving advice to others including Abel about recklessness, bravery and the will to survive the battlefield. He is also seen to be happy when he and Charlie are having a sparring match after both ends up in a draw. However at the present day during the game's story, his friendship with Charlie was damaged when Guile was overpowered by Charlie in the fight.

### Concept

In an interview with producer Noritaka Funamizu, he reveals that Guile's overall appearance was modeled after Jean Pierre Polnareff, a character from the manga series *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*.[8] Guile's page in *Street Fighter X Tekken Artworks* goes into detail, explaining that early designs included Polnareff's vertical, yet modest hairstyle, but at the time the sprites were being made for *Street Fighter II*, the pixel artist jokingly stretched Guile's hair out to the sides. The team found it amusing and decided to give him "the always distinctive Stroheimlook" instead. Noritaka also explains that Guile's name was derived from Polnareff's archenemy, J.Geil, though this was apparently the result of a mix up from the development staff at the time.[9]

## Gameplay and fighting style

Guile's overall style revolves around patiently anticipating the opponent's next move and attacking. He has a strong mix of solid offense and defense, combined with reliable agility and air grabs. However, if timed improperly, Guile himself could easily be baited into using his moves suddenly and be subject to sweeping and airborne attacks.

Guile's moveset has remained fairly consistent throughout his appearances compared to the rest of the cast - his only special moves are the Sonic Boom and Flash Kick. Both moves require a charge motion, thus, he requires a bit of skill and frequent use of certain situations such as jump-ins to make use of trying to integrate them into combos. Due to his more difficult standard offensive use, Guile is more known for trying to space his opponent more than trying to gain an offensive edge, so staying one step ahead and proper execution is vital.

In *Street Fighter V*, while Guile still retains two special moves, he now has three new methods to his battle plan; Faultless Move allows him to keep his charge while moving forward, using his V-Skill, Sonic Blade, Guile spins up energy to create a stationary projectile that can also power up his Sonic Booms, and finally Guile powers up and tosses out continuous Sonic Booms with each button throws when using his V-Trigger, Solid Puncher, he can throw a Sonic Boom at a different speed and it can be used in combos on three or four consecutive hits.

Guile is known in particular for his various command normals and combo abilities, and is also one of the most notable characters in fighting games to have a double hitting sweep (though only one can hit unblocked). Overall, his gameplay style is a contrast to Charlie's gameplay style but is also rivaled with Charlie when using two of their special moves such as Sonic Boom and Flash Kick despite the former's Flash Kick ability changed into Sonic Scythe.

### Super/Ultra Combos

Guile's signature Super Combo has been the Double Flash, sometimes better known as the Somersault/Flash Kick Strike; he performs 2 or 3 consecutive Flash Kicks in a row. Starting in *Street Fighter Alpha 3*, he also has the Sonic Hurricane, a short-range 'cyclone' projectile that traps the opponents if it hits; some games give it a bit of a vacuum effect.

In the *Street Fighter EX* series, Guile can use the Opening Gambit, which features consecutive punches with a finishing sideways Flash Kick. His Meteor Combo in the EX series is called Sonic Boom Typhoon; he creates a giant Sonic Boom tornado that inflicts a heavy amount of damage. In *Capcom vs. SNK* he gains another Super Combo called Total Wipeout, which allows him to perform consecutive punches that end with a final backhand punch that knocks the opponent away.

His Ultra Combos in *Super Street Fighter IV* are the Sonic Hurricane and the Flash Explosion, a Double Flash followed by one more Flash Kick to strike the opponent as they fall out of the air.

In *Street Fighter V*, Guile uses the *Sonic Hurricane* as his Critical Art and has another move called *Sonic Tempest* which deals slightly more damage than the *Sonic Hurricane* in which receives a damage and range boost when his V-Trigger is active. This ability is also a contrast to Charlie's *Judgement Saber* who also deals using Sonic Hurricane in a vertical manner by slamming behind his opponent's head after being engulfed in a dark mist.

## TMNT X Pokemon

Guile acts like the leader when it comes to training. He helps the Turtles take down Shredder as long as they help him take down Shadaloo in the process

## Trivia

* In the live action *Street Fighter* movie, Guile is given the full name of **William F. Guile**, with the military rank of colonel. Although Capcom did not canonize the name, it was also used in the US *Street Fighter* cartoon that was loosely based on the movie. However, in UDON's *Street Fighter* comic book, "Guile" is the character's first name. According to the official *Street Fighter* website, Guile has the USAF rank of Major at the time of *Street Fighter IV*.[15]

* The aircraft in Guile's background is a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. Also, before it was established that Charlie taught him the move, it was said that the main reason for Guile's ability to use the Sonic Boom was due to the fact that he's a fighter pilot and frequently broke the sound barrier when flying, developing the ability to use the special move.

* Guile shares many visual traits with Gunloc from Capcom's *Slam Masters* series.
	+ In Blade's ending in the arcade version of *Street Fighter: The Movie*, he is revealed to be Gunloc, who in this continuity is Guile's brother.

* Guile is the only character in the *Street Fighter IV* to have two air throws.

* Guile's eyelashes are blonde.

* Guile's theme music in *Street Fighter Alpha 3* bears a resemblance to A-ha's song "Take On Me".

* Guile only listens to country music, according to his win quote against Dee Jay in *Super Street Fighter IV*.

* Guile is one of the six characters from *Street Fighter IV* (the others being Cammy, C. Viper, Chun-Li, Ryu and Seth) to have second rivals in *Super SFIV*. His second rival is M. Bison.

* Guile's wife is originally named *Julia* in Japanese version, Her name is later altered as *Jane* overseas. His daughter is originally named "Chris" in the Japanese version and later altered *Amy* overseas.

* Early official artwork shows Guile having only one tattoo, though in-game, due to character sprites' left and right sights being mirrored, he has them on both sides. In later years after this was noticed, the artwork shows him with tattoos on both shoulders.
	+ Ironically, this makes the tattoo correct and incorrect, as the U.S. soldiers sport a backwardsAmerican flag on their uniforms in the same location as Guile's tattoo (symbolic of the fact that a flag carried during a charge into battle would appear backwards as it flew behind its pole). This is contrary to the belief that the "correct" sprite is of Guile facing towards the left, which shows a forward-facing flag. Therefore, the tattoo on his left arm, where the flag is in its usual orientation, keeping the field of stars facing forward, is correct, but the one on his right arm is not.

* Guile is referenced in *Project X Zone*. In a pre-battle dialogue with Vashyron, Ken and Ryu states that they know a soldier who can use the Sonic Boom.

* Guile's ending in *Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival* seems to indicate that he was dreaming the entire time.

* In Guile's ending in *Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix*, when M. Bison tells Guile to kill him, rather than being stopped by his wife, Guile replies, "No. I'm not a murderer like you." Afterwards, three days later, Guile visits Charlie's grave, and then encounters Julia, who tells Guile to come back.

* Guile is the only character in the entire series to have only two special moves. Every other character has at least three.
* The mysterious character from the story expansion trailer wearing a tank top similar to Guile's is actually his boss named General Byron Taylor who appears as a cameo in Guile's stage.

* In 2017 Guile became the spokesman of J, a Japanese hair gel from Yanagiya. The gel's official site includes an interview with Guile, where he notes that he learned about the gel from Ken in a day he was having hair problems due to humidity.[16]