Cody Travers

**Cody Travers** is one of the main characters from the *Final Fight* games and a character from the *Street Fighter* games.

Cody Travers is a born street fighter who became known as the "Hero of Metro City" after rescuing his childhood sweetheart Jessica from the Mad Gear gang in Final Fight with his friend Guy and Jessica's father Mike Haggar. However, after breaking up with Jessica following his arrest, Cody became very apathetic, seeing his imprisonment as a punishment for his good deeds (even though he's gotten so strong that he can escape at any time he wants). During the events of Street Fighter V, Mike Haggar exonerated Cody of his crimes, leading Cody to become the mayor of Metro City and is slowly getting over his depression.

In the AWA fics, Cody is set to appear in a future AWA storyline.

## **Appearance**

Before being arrested, Cody was clean-shaven, and his outfit consisted of blue jeans, white sneakers, a white t-shirt and blue bandages wrapped around his wrists as well as the lower half of his hands.

Cody's hair is dark blond in the original game, its sequel and in Mighty Final Fight, and light blond in all of his Street Fighter appearances, including the comics and the American television series. However, the official artwork for Final Fight suggests that Cody was always intended to be light blond. If that is the case, then his Final Fight sprites may have been subjected to a coloring error on the developers' part.

As a jailbird, he had facial stubble and handcuffs which were linked by a long chain. The hand bandages are white and cover the hands completely, leaving only the fingers exposed. The t-shirt and the jeans were replaced by an old-fashioned prison jumpsuit with white and blue stripes. He keep the white sneakers, though. Unlike most convicts, Cody does not mind being in his prison apparel but, as seen in his Street Fighter Alpha 3 taunt, he can easily remove the handcuffs. In Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, his jailbird outfit returns as his nostalgia costume, and his original outfit returns as his "Final Fight" costume.

In Final Fight: Streetwise, he wears his original outfit with an orange prison shirt over the t-shirt.

Some of the official artwork for Final Fight implied that Cody has always worn Adidas Superstars, but it was his Street Fighter Alpha 3 sprite that fully confirmed this idea. Guy wears Nikes, which may be a reference to the competition between the two sports brands in real life.

In his Shadaloo C.R.I. profile artwork, Cody wears an orange prison outfit with the sleeves tied on his waist as well as a white tank top. He wears his white sneakers from his outfit in Final Fight.

In Street Fighter V, Cody, as a mayor, has a drastically altered appearance; his hair is now shorter and slicked back and he wears a business attire, including a purple formal vest with brown upper outlines, a light blue and white pinstriped long sleeve button-up shirt with the sleeves folded into cuffs and a red neck tie with brown and white linings on the collar, as well as black formal pinstripe pants with a gray belt around his waist which he had holstered his combat knife and black shoes. He notably no longer wears handcuffs. His appearance is similar to Eagle, though without the mustache and the dinner-suit.

#### **Alternate Costumes**

Cody's first downloadable costume in Super Street Fighter IV is a more stylized take on his attire from Final Fight, with the t-shirt being replaced with a white tank top with black trims. He also has tattoos, jewelry, and hand accessories, none of which were featured in his Final Fight design.

His second downloadable costume is a modern prison uniform, which is orange and replaces the sneakers with black sandals.

In Street Fighter X Tekken, Cody also has two DLC costumes: a police uniform similar to that of Edi. E's worn over his default, and a Swap Costume based on Paul Phoenix.

In Street Fighter V: Arcade Editon, Cody's story costume is based off Haggar's outfit in the Final Fight series. He wore green baggy pants with a brown belt rapped around the torso. Cody isn't able to fit the pants, so his costume reveals his blue boxers that have a cow graphic on them that only reveals the head of the cow (a reference to Holstein - a cow sprite that could be obtained as a bonus item in several classic Capcom arcade games). Cody's battle costume is a white tuxedo, with a black bow tie and a rose, black formal pants and dark brown loafers. Like other returning characters, Cody's nostalgia costume returns from Super Street Fighter IV which can also be toggled to reveal a tank top underneath it with the upper-half of his prison uniform tied by the sleeves at his waist in a similar fashion his to Shadaloo C.R.I profile picture. Cody's Final Fight attire also makes an appearance in Street Fighter V: Arcade Editon which can also be toggled to show some wear-and-tear.

## **Personality**

In Final Fight, Cody is depicted as being a combative, reckless but ultimately positive and good-natured man, having a powerful sense of justice and love for his girlfriend, Jessica. However, in his Street Fighter appearances, after breaking up with Jessica, losing touch with his friends and spending several years in prison, Cody has become extremely aloof, apathetic and doubtful. He remains pugnacious as ever, occasionally breaking out of prison just to fight and relieve his boredom, and often maintains his generally dismissive air - a major exception being when he finds an opponent that can entertain him.

He interprets his imprisonment as punishment for his ultimately good deeds, and even admits that the idea of achieving any constructive goal (such as overcoming rivals or taking care of family) is lost on him. Cody harbors some internal resentment towards the outside world, musing that he fought solely for the sake of Metro City but ended up imprisoned for it. According to his ending in the Street Fighter IV games, he feels at home in prison. Despite this, and as certain dialogue indicates, while Cody appears to have given up on fighting crime, he still retains his old sense of justice and an enduring (albeit subdued and exhausted) desire to oppose evil. In particular, his win quote against M. Bison shows that his true feelings come through when he confronts great evil ("I don't consider myself a good guy anymore, but I had to take you down!"), although he immediately tries to hide it. Cody also gives his respect to people who need to do business. This is shown in his win quote against T. Hawk, in which he tells him to not let him stand in the way of what he has to do and then wishes him good luck ("Don't let me stand in your way if you got stuff to do. Good luck!").

During the events of Street Fighter V, his behavior has somewhat changed as the Mayor of Metro City, showing his confidence in fighting his opponents and having more spunk in his step. While his laid-back demeanor is still present and he still misses his simple street fighting days, he has a more positive outlook and secretly enjoys his new position. Similar to Makoto in her rival quote against Fei Long in Super Street Fighter IV, Cody happily laughs after defeating G to gain more popularity in their local government of Metro City for his victory indicating that he fought him on his open challenge between the mayor and the president.

## **Abilities**

Cody's fighting style, officially referred as "Underworld brawling", is street fighting in its "purest" form, and he proves to be a powerful opponent, even while restrained; his reason for keeping his handcuffs on is to make his fights more challenging and also because of his experience in the original Final Fight which made him capable of taking on multiple opponents at once, though he can take them off at any time. As such, Cody was formerly one of three characters (the others being Oro and Akuma) who voluntarily handicaps and restrain themselves due to their power or for a challenge. Cody is also one of the few playable characters in the Street Fighter series to utilize a weapon during fights.

Unlike informal punkers and thugs like Abigail or Birdie who both place emphasis on brute strength, heavy hits and overall high damage, Cody's street fighting style is a mix of boxing combined with his black belt level teachings in martial arts such as karate. He is one of a very select group of characters who are "pure" street fighters whose fighting styles are a result of a mass accumulation of experience on the streets and adapting moves from watching and getting into fights rather then training from actual styles. As representative of the "purest" form of street fighting, this includes carrying on his person concealed weapons, adapting formal martial arts to formidable practical application, and knowledge of how to deal with unfair and extreme odds, including one man gang busting and handling unavoidable potentially consequence dire situations, including mortal risks.

Though referred to as "Underworld brawling", the methods he picked up while in prison may refer directly to what is known in the US as "Jailhouse Rock", being a series of on penitentiary fighting styles developed within penal institutions by inmates. Within the time of his incarceration, his tactics got dirtier; focusing a little more on power, but still retaining some level of technique. As any other prisoner, Cody had to learn how to survive, to assert his dominance in a secured space with murderers and other hardened criminals in order to hold his own. This may explain his newer set of moves, including hurling any heavy object he could get his hands on to obstruct pursuers, using his kicks to trip over or aim heavy blows on the body, and how his knife skills were used akin more like a shank. In turn, he got stronger; strong enough to punch a man-sized hole in a brick wall to join the World Warrior Tournament twice, all the while wearing handcuffs.

As of Street Fighter V, he no longer wears cuffs and may have learnt to limit his strength like Akuma, as his style appears to be more innovative and refined with his crude nature still in play. Not only does he use the iconic pipe, Dirty Coach, from Final Fight in new ways such as batting a projectile with it, he is no longer able to pick up his knife, but his knife skills have improved to the point of being able to wield it as an actual combat knife similar to other weapon users, notably Vega with his claw. He trades his technique of throwing rocks impromptu for wind gales he can project to the enemy.

### **Moveset**

In the Street Fighter games, Cody is an offense-oriented character with a diverse moveset, powerful normal attacks, and good combo capabilities. His movement speed is relatively slow, and lacks options when it comes to handling rushdowns, as many of his special moves are slow to come out.

Cody's move set is mainly based on his Final Fight appearances, similar to other characters from the game, with some 'street fighting' moves added in. Cody possess a sliding kick that can strike at various heights and can throw sand at the foe as a reversal. He can use a sucker punch that quickly travels forward, this used to be able to be used as a reversal or to avoid projectile attacks. While the attack remains, it no longer has these capabilities.

In previous versions could also pick up rocks and throw them at foes, with the ability to delay the throw in order to confuse the opponent. Has also used to have the ability to throw an uppercut that creates a tornado, which is useful against projectiles, These moves, like many others, were removed in Street Fighter V.

In the Street Fighter Alpha series, his Super Combos are Dead End Irony and Final Destruction, both of which work well at close range. Final Destruction also has unique properties based on the ISM being used, explained below. In V-ISM, Cody has a move called Yoke that can be used to dodge.

In Super Street Fighter IV, he gains an additional sucker punch that can break through Super Armor (along with the Ruffian Kick). Dead End Irony returns as his Super Combo, and works differently, starting with a Ruffian Kick that depends on the kick button used. Final Destruction returns as his first Ultra Combo, and also works differently, centering instead around a single punch. His second Ultra Combo, Last Dread Dust, allows him to strike from a further distance and nullify projectiles by kicking up sand. He follows this with a series of wrench attacks and finishes with a pipe.

In Street Fighter X Tekken, Final Destruction reappears as his Super Art, where it again works differently; it starts similarly to the Dead End Irony from Super Street Fighter IV, and the Ruffian Kick can be Supercharged into it.

In Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, Cody has had the majority of his moves changed or completely replaced. Cody no longer threw rocks on his opponent or unleashing a refined version of his Criminal Upper. His Zonk Knuckle instead of being a dodge attack is now a quick punch with two swings on EX version. He gains a projectile called the Tornado Sweep, where he shoots a swirling gust of wind to his opponent. Much like Ruffian Kick, heavier versions lack range, but have better vertical hitboxes and power. It's also worth noting that EX Ruffian Kick hits twice, the second hit launching Cody's opponent into the air. In addition every normal attack except for Jumping Light Kick has been removed.

His V-Skill is the Double Kick where he could land two kicks in mid-air on both sides resembling one of his old special attacks in Final Fight.

His first V-Trigger is the Side Arm where Cody relies on hitting his opponent with his combat knife multiple times with Rapid Fire while dealing a combo. His second V-Trigger is the Dirty Coach where Cody relies on hitting the opponent with his pipe. He can execute both Bean Ball and a Gentle Swing once his second V-Trigger activates. He can also throw rocks when unleashing his Gentle Swing to hit his opponent.

His Critical Art is the Criminal Punisher, a far more powerful version of his Criminal Upper where he unleashes a powerful giant tornado on his opponent to deal heavy damage.

### **Final Fight-Inspired Moves**

Final Fight's use of weapons - a common feature in "beat 'em up" games - is referenced in Cody's fighting style. His ever-present knife even appears in any fight in the middle of the stage where at least one player is using Cody; this is also a common trait of Cody's, which nods to his home series' usage of various objects as weapons, and the knife is his best weapon in the Final Fight games, and only Cody can pick it up and use it as a melee weapon. The knife can be used for fast, damaging attacks, and can also be throw at the foe (which replaces the Bad Stone). Additionally, in Super Street Fighter IV Cody uses a wrench during his Focus Attack, and uses the wrench along with a pipe during Last Dread Dust, as shown above.

Cody's A-ISM Final Destruction is an homage to a glitch that is well-known in practically almost every beat 'em up game, known as the "infinite jab combo", in Final Fight and any specific beat 'em up game in question; a player could deliver two hits from their neutral combo string, then instantly turn around — instantly canceling the combo — and then turn back and chain the same two hits; repeated, this could act as an infinite combo attack that can repeatedly frame lock the target(s). Cody mimics the attack, and finishes with another combo of punches and a Criminal Upper. His X-ISM Final Destruction changes the Super Combo Gauge to a timer; for a short time, this replaces his moves with the original Final Fight moveset, where tapping any button repeatedly performs his normal combo from Final Fight, and all his air attacks are replaced with the Crack Kick.

The Omega Mode in Ultra Street Fighter IV marks the return of several Final Fight mechanics: the "original" Final Destruction appears in the form of a command move called Final Combination, and Cody also regains his turn-around punch, named Fake Blow. Cody also regains his invincible spinning kick in the form of Mega Crash, which uses a bar of the Super Combo Gauge (in lieu of health, as in the original game).

While almost all of Cody's Final Fight move set was present in previous entries, they weren't always very obvious; Street Fighter V brought them more to the foreground. He now has his Final Fight chain combo as a normal attack, although it has lost it's iconic Fake Blow turnaround. His jumping medium kick is now a knee drop, similar to his Final Fight jump+down air attack move. Previously this was the only move from Final Fight that Cody had no version of, although his angle jump light kick was a knee strike it didn't angle downward. In the Game Boy Advance game, Final Fight One, his Alpha 3 sprite was modified to turn his jumping light kick into a knee drop. His standing medium punch is now the lunging punch from the 3rd hit of his Final Fight chain combo. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Street Fighter IV this attack was represented by Stomach Blow, a forward moving gut punch, but that attack has been removed. Tornado Sweep, Cody's Badstone replacement, is a reference to his special attack in Mighty Final Fight.

## **Trivia**

* Cody bears a mild resemblance to Joe from the original Street Fighter. Both are stated to be from the United States, and Cody's Crack Kick is similar to Joe's kick.
	+ Cody's official artwork for Super Street Fighter IV displays a broken brick wall as well as the Street Fighter logo. In the intro for the aforementioned game, he destroys an entire brick wall with just a small rock, and the camera does a closeup on the rock right before he throws it. Both appear to be echoing the original intro of the first Street Fighter, in which the person literally breaking the wall is in fact Joe, who does it with his own fists.
	+ The official Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition trailer also shows this as well.

* Cody is one of the first characters in the franchise to utilize "actual" street fighting as their primary fighting style, despite not originating from that series; of note in this regard is that Final Fight was originally titled Street Fighter '89 and was originally a sequel to the original Street Fighter.

* Cody's rival in Super Street Fighter IV was originally intended to be Chun-Li, but was then changed to Guy shortly before the release. His win quote against Chun-Li implies that she looked up to him as a hero.
	+ However, it seemingly counteracts in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, when according to her win-quote, Chun-Li was still suspicious of Cody and his position as mayor, even though the latter stated to the former (in his win-quote) that he had done his time in prison.

* Oni and E. Honda are the only characters who recognize that Cody is holding back during all his battles. Before Cody fights the former in Super Street Fighter IV's Arcade Mode, Oni implies that he might actually survive the battle if he doesn't hold back.

* He and Rolento are the only two characters whose theme in Street Fighter IV is not their theme from their first Street Fighter Alpha appearance. His theme instead is a remixed version of the original Final Fight theme.

* If Cody wins in a fight against Akuma, he admits that he thought Akuma was rather weak compared to his expectations, being the only character to honestly admit being unimpressed by Akuma's strength.
	+ If Cody wins against Oni in Arcade Mode, he'll say that it was the most fun he's had in his life worth living, making it the only time besides fighting Ryu that he admits to having fun.
	+ Cody's win quotes against non-human challengers (such as Oni and Ogre) may hint that Cody thinks it is fun to fight against them.

* On some occasions in Street Fighter Alpha 3, Edi. E (who is a boss from Final Fight) chases Cody around, trying to arrest him after a win. An even rarer occasion shows him getting kicked off the screen after this.

* In Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX, When Cody is in V-ISM, he can dodge certain attacks while blocking.

* In Street Fighter Alpha 3 one of Cody's win quotes is "After waiting for so long, it feels good to do more than two moves," referencing Final Fight's limited movesets.

* When Cody swings his pipe during his second V-Trigger, it resembles Cracker Jack's Batting Hero Special Attack, Home Run Hero Super Combo, and Home Run King Meteor Combo in the Street Fighter EX series and Fighting EX Layer where he wields his baseball bat.
	+ Additionally, when Walking Dead character Negan, in his guest appearance in Tekken 7, utilizes his bob-wired baseball bat, it resembles Cody second V-Trigger on its purest form.

* During the execution of his Side Arm V-Trigger, the way that Cody initiates his Rapid Fire nearly resembles Chris Redfield's Sweep Combo Hyper Combo in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, its update, and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. Cody also wields a combat knife that is nearly similar to Chris' own.

* Cody's official last name or family name, Travers, was first mentioned in Final Fight: Streetwise, and it has rarely been used since then, as he's commonly referred to as just Cody. Cody's SFV: AE trailer marks one of the few instances of his last name being mentioned outside Streetwise. Since then, his family name became officially and canonically recognized.

* The fact that Cody has succeeded Haggar as the new Mayor of Metro City (given the fact that Haggar himself had predated former WWE wrestler and commentator Jesse Ventura's past run as the former Governor of Minnesota) has coincided with Glenn Jacobs' (or better known as WWE's Kane) mayoral campaign for Knox County, Tennessee, to which he had won in due time. As of October 2018, Jacobs is still incumbent as the Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee while also continuing to wrestle for the WWE.

* His quote "You're already dead" in Final Fight Revenge may be a reference to Kenshiro from the manga series Fist of the North Star.