Poison (Final Fight)
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 Poison |
|
| Affiliation | Mad Gear |
|---|---|
| Birthplace | Los Angeles, United States of America |
| Birthdate | Unknown |
| Height | 175cm (5'9") |
| Weight | 52kg (114 lbs.) |
| Fighting style | Self-taught martial arts |
| Likes | French fries, Cody |
| Dislikes | Jailtime |
Poison is a video game character from the Final Fight series. Growing up an orphan in Los Angeles, she became a street thug for the original Mad Gear gang. Like many other non-boss characters in the series, Poison has a look-alike character named Roxy. Roxy though is just a mere palette swap, and thus, had no real backstory. Poison and Roxy are fast characters with moves of an acrobat.
In the original Final Fight, Poison and Roxy, along with other minor Mad Gear members constantly attempted to stop the forward progress of the three heroes Haggar, Cody and Guy. These attempts failed and the entire Mad Gear gang was eventually defeated.
During Final Fight Revenge, Poison is worried that all of her past crimes will cause her to get arrested. Former Mad Gear member, Edi. E was arresting many of her former cohorts from the gang so she could get promoted. Poison knew this and set up Cody for his crimes. She did this because she had a crush on him, but was angered by the fact he's always going to be loyal to his girlfriend, Jessica Haggar.
After seemingly disappearing for a long time after FFR, Poison shows up in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact managing Hugo. Hugo and Poison are pretty good friends despite their constant quarrels. She's currently still Hugo's manager planning to start their own wrestling organization.
Poison was planned to apear in both Final Fight: Streetwise and Capcom Fighting All Stars, but she was cut from the first game, and the second was cancelled.
[edit] Controversy
Poison is one of the most controversial characters, as the backstory in the original Japanese versions of the game series described her as transsexual (more specifically, a newhalf. See futanari for more information on the term), although the early English releases make no mention of this and refer to both Poison and Roxy as disgendered women. It's been stated that Capcom of Japan received a phone call from a Capcom USA rep opposing violence against women, so the developers changed them into newhalfs[citation needed]. Whether this is merely a reflection of different views towards the gender status of transsexuals, or whether Capcom has chosen to remove this portion of the characters' backstories is unclear. Reportedly, Capcom USA was unaware of Poison's identity, and felt that having women as opponents was inappropriate, replacing the pair with two mundane-looking punks named Billy and Sid for the English SNES and GBA versions of the game. English language sequels including the American-developed Final Fight Revenge would follow the same model as later Japanese games, explicitly avoiding referring to the characters as anything other than female (explaining her crush on Cody in both the Street Fighter and Final Fight series and the 'picture show' during the Poison Kiss super).
In Capcom Classics Collection, it is stated that Poison is a transvestite, while Roxy is a female who looks up to Poison. However, in the Super Famicom version's manual for Final Fight, both character are referred as males and that the only reason why Roxy is a transvestite is because of his admiration to Poison. Whether or not if Roxy is a female because of story retcon or mistranslation is still unclear. Regardless, Poison is still a newhalf in the Japanese version.
[edit] Trivia
- Roxy has orange hair, Poison has pink/purple hair. Poison is also typically stronger than Roxy.
- As noted, Poison and Roxy were replaced with Billy and Sid, male versions in the English versions of the SNES port of the first Final Fight and Final Fight Guy. The change was carried over to Final Fight One for historical reasons.
- Capcom Japan teased people with the idea that Poison might have gotten a sex change after Fight Fight Revenge, but it's been confirmed that she didn't.
- The band Poison (which is probably where she got her name: many characters were named after music groups), was known for its members that were male but looked androgynous.
- She was cut from Streetwise, but much like Sodom who was also planned to be in the game, her voice samples are still on the disc. (A promo comic also hinted both were intended to be in).
- When not traveling with Hugo, she lives with her cat in an apartment facing the back streets of Metro City.
- The dialog between Poison and Haggar in the cancelled game Capcom Fighting All Stars hint that they're familiar with each other and have met.
[edit] References
| Adon – Akuma – Alex – Balrog – Birdie – Blanka – Cammy – Charlie – Chun-Li – Dan – Dee Jay – Dhalsim – Dudley – Eagle – E. Honda – Elena – Fei Long – Gen – Geki – Gill – Gouken – Goutetsu – Guile – Hugo – Ibuki – Ingrid - Joe – Karin – Ken – Lee – M. Bison – Maki – Makoto – Mike – Necro – Oro – Q – Rainbow Mika – Remy – Retsu – Rose – Ryu – Sagat – Sakura – Sean – The Dolls - T. Hawk – Twelve – Urien – Vega – Yang – Yun – Zangief |
| Carlos – Cody – Dean – Guy – Kyle – Lucia – Maki – Mike Haggar – Poison – Rolento – Sodom – Other Final Fight Characters |
| Blade – Kevin Striker – Sawada – Sheng Long |
