- "That selfishness victimizes people, destroys love, and creates hatred! I'll never forgive them! Those who call themselves "warriors..." Just like my father, a man who deserted and betrayed his family!"
- — Remy to Alex (Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike)
Remy (レミー Remī?) is a video game character from the Street Fighter series, first appearing in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. He is a young savateur from Paris, seeking revenge against his father for abandoning him and his sister.
Biography
Appearance
Remy is a lanky fighter with long, smooth, turquoise hair. He wears tight-fitting red pants, a black leather jacket emblazoned with a capital omega (Ω), and brown high-heeled boots. One of his win animations reveals that he wears nothing under the jacket.
Concept
Design-wise, Remy is evocative of The King of Fighters series' Iori Yagami. Both fighters wear similar clothing and have cold and aloof demeanors; however, Remy is a likely deliberate contrast to Iori, evidenced in their personalities and other features.
Though Remy can be just as wrathful as Iori, he appears comparatively calmer and reserved; conversely, Iori rarely tries to hide his hatred. This is not only displayed in their respective fighting style (i.e. Remy's composed Savate techniques versus Iori's more "primal" attacks), but in ironic elements of their personality. While Remy claims to hate fighting despite being a fighter himself, Iori, on the other hand, hates violence despite being a violent person.
Also of note are their color themes; Remy's long hair and association with a 'cooler' blue is opposite of Iori's spiked red hair and his "fiery" persona. Despite their similarities, it is unknown if this was intentional, as C. Viper of Street Fighter IV was explicitly intended in mind with a flair and aesthetic similar to that found in The King of Fighters.
On another note, Remy's character traits are most similar to the aspects of a rugged "Gen X'er" or an "MTV Generation" child, with an apathetic personality, uncouth self carried disposition, and rock fashion get up, such as his long cyan hair and leather jacket.
Furthermore, although his own character in his own right, Remy's overall inclusion and similarity to Guile (atleast gameplay-wise) is a likely light jab at the 1990's fad of making more "edgier" versions of preexisting characters due to the rise of alternative media, the rising trend of deconstructing traditional elements in entertainment media, and the youth approach of wild rebellious "coolness" in the decade.
Personality
Remy seems calm and composed, but in reality he is a cruel and nihilistic warrior full of wrath and hostility. Though he sees fighting as a futile lifestyle, as it "victimizes people, destroys love, and creates hatred," he continues to fight out of an inability to forgive people like his father, who abandoned him and his now-dead sister to pursue the fight. His resentment is of such a level of vindication that he reports fighters he defeats for the authorities to deal with, and an almost possessive hatred that may be to the point of madness; Remy's pre-battle rival dialogue with Alex indicates that the latter thinks him to be insane and in need of a psychiatrist.
Despite claiming to "hate everything that he sees," Remy obviously still cares for his dead sister, whom he has preserved. He also has an inquisitive, self-doubting side, as he often ponders why his opponents fight, or why he continues to fight despite the fact that he abhors fighting.
Story
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
Remy bears a grudge against all fighters, since his father abandoned his family to pursue the path of the warrior, and his sister died in his father's absence, whom he encased in a block of ice underwater in the Bay of Biscay to preserve her.
In his ending, Remy ends up making a last visit to his sister's tomb. Realizing his fallacy of painting another shadow over his own, using his grudge of fighting and engaging in the sport as a crutch to the voids and wounds of his own heart, Remy comes to the conclusion of accepting the past and forgetting the hatred that keeps him from moving on, fully knowing that remaining as he is, will not get him anywhere. Though he cannot forgive his father yet, Remy takes a last look at his sister and says goodbye, to make the first step towards a new tomorrow for himself. Letting her body sink into the depths of the sea and walking his last steps in the cavern, a light shines, one that Remy has not seen in the longest time. Wishing to know where his new ways will take him, Remy continues onward on his new path.
Gameplay and fighting style
Remy fights using the French martial art of Savate, and his special moves are very similar to those of Guile and Charlie. He is one of the few characters in 3rd Strike that can effectively control space at all times and at virtually any range with a combination of powerful long range attacks and zoning techniques.
Cameo Appearances
SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters series
Remy, along with many other Street Fighter characters, has appeared as a card in the SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters card games.
Quotes
See: Remy/Quotes.
Trivia
- One of the win quotes for Remy actually breaks the fourth wall by referencing the existence of the Health Meter ("Pain is a cheap substitute for a vitality gauge!").
- Remy and his sister may be an homage to Hyōga and his mother Natassia from the manga and anime series Saint Seiya.
- Like Remy's sister, Natassia's body remained preserved because of the low temperatures around the corpse, due in her case to the cold waters of the Arctic Sea, where her boat had shipwrecked.
- Hyōga (the current Bronze Saint of Cygnus) holds a deep-seated contempt for his fellow Bronze Saints, a detail that was heavily altered between the original manga series and the anime adaptation.
- Both have storylines that revolve around leaving the bodies of their deceased loved ones to finally sink into the deep ocean as a way to overcome their past and face their own future.
- Tekken character Katarina Alves is somewhat similar to Remy. Both use similar stances and Savate styles that focus on kicks.
- Katarina's Rage Art has also a strong resemblance to Remy's Rising Rage Flash and Cold Blue Kick move. Her unblockable move is also similar to his latter move.
Stages
Only having one appearance throughout the series, Remy's stage implies that he prefers hanging out and setting his fights at underground venues and urban locales in the late night. Likewise, his nationality sees him in the country of France, and most notably in the city of Paris.
- Club Metro - Paris, France - The outskirts of a cyberpunk themed nightclub in the heart of Paris' historic quarters.
Themes
His signature theme is the song The Beep, which is a synth techno arrangement. Being in Third Strike, his song has three variations; The Beep's first arrangement is a steady techno track, the second a more intense and wild arrangement, while the final round arrangement uses a low key steady beat into chorus variation to characterize tension.
Gallery
Sprites
See also
References
Street Fighter III Characters | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
New Generation | Alex · Dudley · Elena · Ibuki · Ken · Necro · Oro · Ryu · Sean · Yang · Yun | |||
2nd Impact | Akuma · Gill · Hugo · Shin Akuma · Urien | |||
3rd Strike | Chun-Li · Makoto · Q · Remy · Twelve |