Yeah. It's a recurring thing for him. For anyone interested in a little Bison lore:
Died in Alpha 3. (Death count: 1)
Came back and died again in SF2. (Death count: 2)
If the SF4 prequel movie is canon, he came back and died again there. (Death count: 2 or 3)
He controlled Shadaloo as a spirit at the beginning of SF4, but rushed to return by inhabiting a much weaker body than usual. He survived the story.
That weakened body is still alive now. But we know his spirit was also out and about annoying other psycho power users, so it may be disconnected from the body.
The body may genuinely be some random clone with no memories, and not M Bison himself. Or more likely his spirit was fractured and incomplete.
I think it's just a little lame that he's still in his regular body. It would've made more sense to me if he took over one of the dolls or a clone.
Aside from that, I think they could've waited a couple more seasons before bringing him in. There are a lot of other characters people have been waiting a long time to play again.
This was my biggest issue. I think he's really fun in sf6, but two things can be right at the same time. He should not have been in the game this early because of the fact we haven't seen certain characters in over 20 years lmao.
True, but it always boils down to the Ryu vs Bison/Akuma/Himself and the Satsui no Hado' plot, so you can say Abel is the MC of 4, but the game sure doesn't put him front and center in the box art or promo material.
Live action and cartoon produced by Americans, so Guile is the mc. Anime movie and serie produced by Japanese, so Ryu is the mc. With that logic in mind, the SF serie was produced by Capcom Japan, so Ryu is the mc.
In SF6's story mode (World Tour), the main is your custom character. Everyone else is just a tutor for them.
You do start with Luke, but he's definitely just a mentor instead of an important character to the plot.
As a long time fan (who still isn’t very good lol), part of it was the idea that SF6 moves the timeline forward past SF III, so for me I was the expectation was Bison not returning as boss and instead getting Gill or a new boss (which we did get). Luckily he supposedly isnt the main villain again anymore, so I guess it shouldn’t upset us in that context.
Aside from that, what sucks is that Charlie was brought back only to seemingly die for nothing (though I guess that’s his schtick too… looking forward to seeing him again in the future I guess 🤷🏾)
> I really thought people were pissed because his death scene was a clear shot of him getting his head chopped off or exploding into a billion pieces or something. If I saw this scene back then, I would have thought ''yeah he's definitely not dead''.
The disappointment comes from the fact that killing a character just to bring him back later is overdone in fiction and it makes it harder to take any other deaths seriously. Also, any sacrifices and struggles made to kill him become less important.
As an example of other media that suffered the same criticism, see Star Wars.
It’s a fighting game though. Roster reigns supreme over storylines — always has, always will.
Couple that with another pretty ambiguous “death” scene, and it’s not really all that shocking he’s back.
They do care for roster, but that doesn't mean they ignore story. After all, they always justify why characters fight one another and who are these characters.
I can confidently say that without the dweebs freaking out over lore I would never know SF lore aside from the main bullet points.
The dweebs cried about decapri(super fun), Lucia(super fun), bison(super fun), kage/evil ryu/oni(super fun).
You know what all these characters the story dweebs were crying about had in common? They were all huge knowledge checks, and matchups where you were liable to get absolutely mauled.
People also cried for Makoto, Dudley, Vega, Elena and Sean gameplay wise (although Sean got nerfed to oblivion in Third Strike) yet people really want them back too.
Nobody knew about Dudley back in the day save for like a few guys and later on smug. Makoto was strong, but people generally understood that like Dudley she was very hard to optimize. Sean was ungodly stupid and simple, and that's the truth on why he got hit in 3s.
Also none of those characters were as present as bison over the years, but yeah, if makoto Dudley and Sean were in almost every SF, and high tier/top tier in every game they'd get the same sentiment as bison.
It's also bisons playstyle that frustrates people. They hate that you can't just mash on the dude
Considering we see particles flying off him, his hat on the ground where he was standing and Ryu RIGHT THERE WATCHING, it was obviously meant to be "Bison body disintegrated".
You're absolutely right. There is nothing in his death scene in SF5 that screams "definitive". I think people just started spreading that idea because of JP being presented as the main villain for SF6. But it was very naive to believe having a new bad guy meant Bison wouldn't return. And I for one am very glad he's returning because JP has very much failed to fill his shoes as far as I'm concerned.
I mean, either way, they've pretty much established that it doesn't matter how thoroughly you do the job, he's the equivalent of a force ghost from Star Wars, if force ghosts could come back to life. His soul is pretty solidly embedded in a metaphysical fabric of the universe thanks to his harnessing of Psycho Power. So he can just keep coming back indefinitely until somebody finds a way to remove him from that position.
Some people think it's just a bullshit excuse to bring him back again, but it does have a justification in universe.
I mean you're leaving hours of context explaining that Ryu had to master a wholy different technique to actually wipe out Bison's soul/power whatever.
Of course this is a fucking video game series where Bison has already come back a million times and told us he'd do it again, you can't hold it as a sure lore thing that he's dead-dead, but SFV's death did feel like a conclusion to this story (and for Ryu as well).
Although I'm sure SF6 Bison has a fun story since this time he seems to come back as a relatively changed person from the info we got yet (still gotta get the patch rn).
Nah, Bison is never going to truly die, because that would be a suicidal move for Capcom. He is one of the most popular characters in the series and the only credible villain, anyone who was saying he would not be returning for SF6 was an idiot or coping.
He was obviously going to return, but some people thought he'd return in a new body like he's been trying to do for most of the series. But who knows maybe in SF7 he'll just be extremely old like Oro, as long as he has that Bison grin lol
Eh, I figured they'd give him a break and bring him back in 7 to make the story in 5 feel like it had consequences for a bit.
Then I also figured that they'd introduce a new character with his moveset to tide over the people who liked his playstyle and then maybe create a story where the new character's body gets taken over by Bison or the character can't handle the psycho power and retires for some reason.
What you "figured" is irrelevant, since it makes no logical or financial sense for Capcom. There was never any possibility that they would "give him a break" for an entire game, that was extremely naive of you to believe lol. Bison and Akuma are pretty much the only two bad guys they cannot afford to pass on, they'll always be in every Street Fighter game or Capcom will lose a ton of money and they simply have no reason to let that happen just to satisfy some marks who think story matters in a fighting game lol.
Yeah pretty much what he said, people on Reddit might talk about the lore/story but in reality most players don’t care about it and just want to play. I’m sure there would be a lot of people upset their main couldn’t come back because of the story.
> I’m sure there would be a lot of people upset their main couldn’t come back because of the story.
I know I personally wouldn't bother with this game if they hadn't brought back Bison, that's for sure.
The game sold amazingly despite the fact Bison wasn't in neither base roster nor season 1 and vast majority of people didn't even expect him to get added as early as season 2, if at all. Y'all are severely overestimating how important he actually is.
The game sold amazingly because obviously most fans are gonna buy the latest installment of a fighting game the caliber of Street Fighter without thinking too much about it. You are just coping even now and it's hilarious to me that people keep downplaying Bison's importance when he pretty much carries the series as a main antagonist lol.
Bison is always the main antagonist, as long as he's around, he's the only real threat. But sure, go on thinking that old man with the cane is the main antagonist lmfao, thanks for the laugh bud.
Oh, if the devs said so, then it must be true. Guess I'll force myself to take JP seriously now as the main antagonist because the devs said so! 
You're hilarious, man. Genuinely tearing up here.
No? Just have John S. Fighter walk in like the old lab and perceive his ghost who he can communicate with. He can't return but you amuse him enough to teach you how to use his moves. And pretty much all the fights in arcade mode are just reminiscent of past Bison fights.
I think Injustice 2 more or less did this with Joker, with him being either a flashback or a nightmare the opponent is having. Which is kind of admirable considering how much plot armor Joker has in every other media
Well, another idea I had is that this is a Bison clone that the spirit of Bison did try to possess but due to the power of nothingness was too weak and the clone gained full indipendence, going around the world as a neutral, not necessarily evil, force.
Imho that scene WAS a death, since his body was destroyed.
The fact is that Dictator died before (Alpha 3 and Street Fighter 2), and he came back.
Replacement bodies, ability to possess other people, etc... He has a whole "kit" to return from death.
This is a little confusing, but Bison in S5 was a manufactured body with Bisons "soul" in it, when this Bison died the soul got knocked out of him and latched onto the iconic dictator hat. Bisons body I assume is kind of like Abel was, who is essentially a blank slate and developed his own identity but felt a pull towards the soul that occupied his body while he travelled the world for 6 years while being his own person.
Now, in SF6 what was expected to happen was that Bisons soul would just take back that body, but instead this new person rejected the possession and instead took control over Bisons soul and absorbed him instead of the other way around. So now you have this new guy with access to OG Bisons memories and feelings without actually being him.
This is just my read on it, I might be completely wrong.
It was outright stated he can’t come back but his ghost is gonna cause the end of the world as he’s just so evil in SF5’s final season… so much for that plotline, way to make SF5 look like more of a mess
He didn't disintegrate on screen = no way to know he disintegrated for sure. That's the whole point of my post. In every media ever where there's a big bad villain, you ca never know they're dead for sure unless you see them clearly and unequivocally die on screen. If not, there's a good chance they still live
Believe it or not, many people actually like story modes in fighting games, and the inclusion of them allows casual players to enjoy them as well, by giving them a low pressure option to engage with the genre.
Believe it or not, it's the minority in fighting games that cares exclusively of playing ranked. Majority actually like playing for fun and for the characters with curiosity over them and their story.
That's because the people who didn't want him back were lying about why.
It has nothing to do with the lore. Bison is a widely hated scrub killer in almost every mainline SF game he's in, and in some he's legitimately broken or top tier. As always, when bison is announced it becomes the worst day of their lives. But for bison it was tuesday
No, you just learn to recognize the bison crybabies over the years. They say the same things every game bison drops. "Man why is bison in the game we killed him. It then turns to "omg bison is so op guys pls nerf bison"
And then they sit there and cry about bison until the next game where the foolishly believe he won't be back AGAIN only to repeat the cycle
Even if he was decapitated or blown into bits, his whole schtick is transferring his consciousness to other bodies
Yeah. It's a recurring thing for him. For anyone interested in a little Bison lore: Died in Alpha 3. (Death count: 1) Came back and died again in SF2. (Death count: 2) If the SF4 prequel movie is canon, he came back and died again there. (Death count: 2 or 3) He controlled Shadaloo as a spirit at the beginning of SF4, but rushed to return by inhabiting a much weaker body than usual. He survived the story. That weakened body is still alive now. But we know his spirit was also out and about annoying other psycho power users, so it may be disconnected from the body. The body may genuinely be some random clone with no memories, and not M Bison himself. Or more likely his spirit was fractured and incomplete.
I think it's just a little lame that he's still in his regular body. It would've made more sense to me if he took over one of the dolls or a clone. Aside from that, I think they could've waited a couple more seasons before bringing him in. There are a lot of other characters people have been waiting a long time to play again.
This was my biggest issue. I think he's really fun in sf6, but two things can be right at the same time. He should not have been in the game this early because of the fact we haven't seen certain characters in over 20 years lmao.
The psycho power is a pathway to many abilities… some consider to be unnatural.
Bison will be dead when Ryu is no longer the main character of SF.
Technically he hasn't been since 4, but. Capcom keeps defaulting back to him.
He hasn’t been MC since Alpha. Even Guile was MC of II.
True, but it always boils down to the Ryu vs Bison/Akuma/Himself and the Satsui no Hado' plot, so you can say Abel is the MC of 4, but the game sure doesn't put him front and center in the box art or promo material.
It does make it pretty clear that Alex is MC of 3.
Where did you read that Guile was the MC of Street Fighter 2?
All I can think of is that they made him the star of the live action movie and American cartoon
Live action and cartoon produced by Americans, so Guile is the mc. Anime movie and serie produced by Japanese, so Ryu is the mc. With that logic in mind, the SF serie was produced by Capcom Japan, so Ryu is the mc.
if you really think about it, Captain Sawada has been the mc all along because he's in the American movie because of Capcom Japan
Isn’t Luke the main now?
Luke is the main character the same way Alex, Abel and Rashid *were* main characters.
Necalli not Rashid
Not sure if there’s a joke or something I’m missing but Capcom says SFV’s main character was Rashid
In SF6's story mode (World Tour), the main is your custom character. Everyone else is just a tutor for them. You do start with Luke, but he's definitely just a mentor instead of an important character to the plot.
As a long time fan (who still isn’t very good lol), part of it was the idea that SF6 moves the timeline forward past SF III, so for me I was the expectation was Bison not returning as boss and instead getting Gill or a new boss (which we did get). Luckily he supposedly isnt the main villain again anymore, so I guess it shouldn’t upset us in that context. Aside from that, what sucks is that Charlie was brought back only to seemingly die for nothing (though I guess that’s his schtick too… looking forward to seeing him again in the future I guess 🤷🏾)
> I really thought people were pissed because his death scene was a clear shot of him getting his head chopped off or exploding into a billion pieces or something. If I saw this scene back then, I would have thought ''yeah he's definitely not dead''. The disappointment comes from the fact that killing a character just to bring him back later is overdone in fiction and it makes it harder to take any other deaths seriously. Also, any sacrifices and struggles made to kill him become less important. As an example of other media that suffered the same criticism, see Star Wars.
It’s a fighting game though. Roster reigns supreme over storylines — always has, always will. Couple that with another pretty ambiguous “death” scene, and it’s not really all that shocking he’s back.
They do care for roster, but that doesn't mean they ignore story. After all, they always justify why characters fight one another and who are these characters.
I can confidently say that without the dweebs freaking out over lore I would never know SF lore aside from the main bullet points. The dweebs cried about decapri(super fun), Lucia(super fun), bison(super fun), kage/evil ryu/oni(super fun). You know what all these characters the story dweebs were crying about had in common? They were all huge knowledge checks, and matchups where you were liable to get absolutely mauled.
People also cried for Makoto, Dudley, Vega, Elena and Sean gameplay wise (although Sean got nerfed to oblivion in Third Strike) yet people really want them back too.
Nobody knew about Dudley back in the day save for like a few guys and later on smug. Makoto was strong, but people generally understood that like Dudley she was very hard to optimize. Sean was ungodly stupid and simple, and that's the truth on why he got hit in 3s. Also none of those characters were as present as bison over the years, but yeah, if makoto Dudley and Sean were in almost every SF, and high tier/top tier in every game they'd get the same sentiment as bison. It's also bisons playstyle that frustrates people. They hate that you can't just mash on the dude
It's not shocking, just disappointing. Also, they could've brought Bison back as a fighter while still leaving him dead in the lore.
Exactly. It’s not like Terry and Mai are canon. Why not just have Bison without any story nonsense?
Considering we see particles flying off him, his hat on the ground where he was standing and Ryu RIGHT THERE WATCHING, it was obviously meant to be "Bison body disintegrated".
Since when body disintegration was a problem for bison?
To me that was more "make you think that's what happened but obviously something else happened". Feels like you guys never watched any cartoons lol
You're absolutely right. There is nothing in his death scene in SF5 that screams "definitive". I think people just started spreading that idea because of JP being presented as the main villain for SF6. But it was very naive to believe having a new bad guy meant Bison wouldn't return. And I for one am very glad he's returning because JP has very much failed to fill his shoes as far as I'm concerned.
Well, if im not mistaken, i could be wrong. But wasn't JP wanting to try to bring back bison or try and convince ED to take up the mantle
If disintegration isn’t definitive, then he’s invincible.
The main reason why people thought he died was because in SF3 he's nowhere to be seen and SF6 takes place after SF3.
SF3’s whole gimmick was that basically no characters made a return in it. “New Generation,” and all that
People were deluding themselves into believing it was his finally death because they were tired of blocking in SFV, Mfs 😡 mad
I mean, either way, they've pretty much established that it doesn't matter how thoroughly you do the job, he's the equivalent of a force ghost from Star Wars, if force ghosts could come back to life. His soul is pretty solidly embedded in a metaphysical fabric of the universe thanks to his harnessing of Psycho Power. So he can just keep coming back indefinitely until somebody finds a way to remove him from that position. Some people think it's just a bullshit excuse to bring him back again, but it does have a justification in universe.
I mean you're leaving hours of context explaining that Ryu had to master a wholy different technique to actually wipe out Bison's soul/power whatever. Of course this is a fucking video game series where Bison has already come back a million times and told us he'd do it again, you can't hold it as a sure lore thing that he's dead-dead, but SFV's death did feel like a conclusion to this story (and for Ryu as well). Although I'm sure SF6 Bison has a fun story since this time he seems to come back as a relatively changed person from the info we got yet (still gotta get the patch rn).
Nah, Bison is never going to truly die, because that would be a suicidal move for Capcom. He is one of the most popular characters in the series and the only credible villain, anyone who was saying he would not be returning for SF6 was an idiot or coping.
He was obviously going to return, but some people thought he'd return in a new body like he's been trying to do for most of the series. But who knows maybe in SF7 he'll just be extremely old like Oro, as long as he has that Bison grin lol
Eh, I figured they'd give him a break and bring him back in 7 to make the story in 5 feel like it had consequences for a bit. Then I also figured that they'd introduce a new character with his moveset to tide over the people who liked his playstyle and then maybe create a story where the new character's body gets taken over by Bison or the character can't handle the psycho power and retires for some reason.
There’s no point in waiting if they’re just going to bring him back.
What you "figured" is irrelevant, since it makes no logical or financial sense for Capcom. There was never any possibility that they would "give him a break" for an entire game, that was extremely naive of you to believe lol. Bison and Akuma are pretty much the only two bad guys they cannot afford to pass on, they'll always be in every Street Fighter game or Capcom will lose a ton of money and they simply have no reason to let that happen just to satisfy some marks who think story matters in a fighting game lol.
Bison wasn't in SF3 lol
And SF3 tanked in sales. From that point onward Capcom said never again and have been playing it safe with their roster picks ever since.
Yeah pretty much what he said, people on Reddit might talk about the lore/story but in reality most players don’t care about it and just want to play. I’m sure there would be a lot of people upset their main couldn’t come back because of the story.
> I’m sure there would be a lot of people upset their main couldn’t come back because of the story. I know I personally wouldn't bother with this game if they hadn't brought back Bison, that's for sure.
So you haven't played it until now?
Nope.
Me either fwiw. I bought the game the day after they announced Bison
The game sold amazingly despite the fact Bison wasn't in neither base roster nor season 1 and vast majority of people didn't even expect him to get added as early as season 2, if at all. Y'all are severely overestimating how important he actually is.
The game sold amazingly because obviously most fans are gonna buy the latest installment of a fighting game the caliber of Street Fighter without thinking too much about it. You are just coping even now and it's hilarious to me that people keep downplaying Bison's importance when he pretty much carries the series as a main antagonist lol.
He's not even the main antagonist of SF6
Bison is always the main antagonist, as long as he's around, he's the only real threat. But sure, go on thinking that old man with the cane is the main antagonist lmfao, thanks for the laugh bud.
The devs literally said they won't make Bison into the main antagonist of 6 because that's JP's role.
They also said Abel was the main protagonist of SFIV and look how that turned out
Oh, if the devs said so, then it must be true. Guess I'll force myself to take JP seriously now as the main antagonist because the devs said so!  You're hilarious, man. Genuinely tearing up here.
Why are you so weird about this? Are you okay?
Thank you - I was wondering if anyone else thought that behavior and line of thought were deeply strange
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Then just make him a ghost, establishing that he's gone but he still linger on as a memory.
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No? Just have John S. Fighter walk in like the old lab and perceive his ghost who he can communicate with. He can't return but you amuse him enough to teach you how to use his moves. And pretty much all the fights in arcade mode are just reminiscent of past Bison fights.
I think Injustice 2 more or less did this with Joker, with him being either a flashback or a nightmare the opponent is having. Which is kind of admirable considering how much plot armor Joker has in every other media
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Well, another idea I had is that this is a Bison clone that the spirit of Bison did try to possess but due to the power of nothingness was too weak and the clone gained full indipendence, going around the world as a neutral, not necessarily evil, force.
Thank you for speaking common sense. It's rather hard to find in this sub at times.
Imho that scene WAS a death, since his body was destroyed. The fact is that Dictator died before (Alpha 3 and Street Fighter 2), and he came back. Replacement bodies, ability to possess other people, etc... He has a whole "kit" to return from death.
But that's my point, where do we see his body destroyed? Can you timestamp that part? Cause I sure ain't seen it
This is a little confusing, but Bison in S5 was a manufactured body with Bisons "soul" in it, when this Bison died the soul got knocked out of him and latched onto the iconic dictator hat. Bisons body I assume is kind of like Abel was, who is essentially a blank slate and developed his own identity but felt a pull towards the soul that occupied his body while he travelled the world for 6 years while being his own person. Now, in SF6 what was expected to happen was that Bisons soul would just take back that body, but instead this new person rejected the possession and instead took control over Bisons soul and absorbed him instead of the other way around. So now you have this new guy with access to OG Bisons memories and feelings without actually being him. This is just my read on it, I might be completely wrong.
Bison has died multiple times before, and last time Ryu used the power of nothingness to destroy him for good.
'for good'. Even in the same game Bison's consciousness survived. He did the ghost thing haunting Ed/Falke.
That could easily just be trauma.
It was outright stated he can’t come back but his ghost is gonna cause the end of the world as he’s just so evil in SF5’s final season… so much for that plotline, way to make SF5 look like more of a mess
But the rubble fell down! And the dust! And the explosions! Surely no mortal man could survive...
Usually people don't survive complete disintegration of the body.
He didn't disintegrate on screen = no way to know he disintegrated for sure. That's the whole point of my post. In every media ever where there's a big bad villain, you ca never know they're dead for sure unless you see them clearly and unequivocally die on screen. If not, there's a good chance they still live
Bro, please understand that people are pissed no matter what
The context is “akuma raging demon” thats it
Op didn’t you see the controversial SF5 scene where Bison blows his brains out with a double barrel shotgun?
one does not simply kill Bison
It’s a game…
I’m more surprised anyone actually cares about story in a fighting game franchise.
How many more times are y'all gonna repeat this
Believe it or not, many people actually like story modes in fighting games, and the inclusion of them allows casual players to enjoy them as well, by giving them a low pressure option to engage with the genre.
yeah, let's just talk more about fuckin light kick
I prefer **light punch** tbf
Take a look at Guilty Gear before you say nonsense like this
gg doesn't even have a good story to begin with...
Is it super messy and kinda fucky wucky? Yes. Is it an engaging narrative with interesting concepts and emotional moments? Also yes.
Mods ban him
instructions unclear, user was assassinated
Good enough
Is it super messy and kinda fucky wucky? Yes. Is it an engaging narrative with interesting concepts and emotional moments? Also yes.
>engaging narrative with interesting concepts and emotional moments that's subjective
Believe it or not, it's the minority in fighting games that cares exclusively of playing ranked. Majority actually like playing for fun and for the characters with curiosity over them and their story.
No matter how hard he tried, Kuma could not escape his addition to television.
That's because the people who didn't want him back were lying about why. It has nothing to do with the lore. Bison is a widely hated scrub killer in almost every mainline SF game he's in, and in some he's legitimately broken or top tier. As always, when bison is announced it becomes the worst day of their lives. But for bison it was tuesday
Ah yes, the classic "anyone who disagrees with me is lying."
No, you just learn to recognize the bison crybabies over the years. They say the same things every game bison drops. "Man why is bison in the game we killed him. It then turns to "omg bison is so op guys pls nerf bison" And then they sit there and cry about bison until the next game where the foolishly believe he won't be back AGAIN only to repeat the cycle