Sodom

Character Summary

Sodom originally appeared in Final Fight but is more well-known from his appearences in the Street Fighter Alpha series. A top member of the original Mad Gear Gang, a caucasian male, living in The United States, but obsessed with Japanese Culture. He is well versed in many aspects of the culture, but his handle on the language is somewhat lacking (as will be explored later).

Appearances

Sodom made his first appearance in the game Final Fight as the Boss of the 2nd stage. In the game, he is an undefeated underground wrestler and promoter working for Mad Gear who challenges opponents in an underground ring hidden under Metro City.

He would re-emerge in Street Fighter Alpha trying to reform the Mad Gear Gang, only to be ridiculed by his new gang members for the name he chose. In Alpha 2 he travels to Japan to seeking new members, and ends up encountering Edmond Honda. In Alpha 3 he becomes involved in the fight against M. Bison and destroys his Headquarters by driving his truck into it. He also makes an appearance in the Mad Gear Hideout stage in Street Fighter X Tekken. He is seen in a Kabuki-like outfit in one round, accompanied by Mad Gear members dancing and playing instruments. In the next round, he is chased around the background by Mike Haggar.

Characteristics

Sodom wears Tabi and Geta along with samurai gauntlets, blue jeans, body armor, and a samurai Kabuto and mask. On his armor, he has written the Japanese Kani shi (death), but due to his mishandling of the written language, it has no meaning. This attempt at Kanji is an in-joke to people who know Japanese, furthering his character as an American who is hopelessly obsessed with Japanese culture. He is never seen fighting without a Katana or Jitte blades(as in the Alpha series), making him one of the first Street Fighter character who uses weapons(tied with Rolento and Birdie).

In the Street Fighter Alpha series he is a subject of ridicule. Most laughs come from his post-fight quotes, which are failed attempts at speaking Japanese. His inability to speak Japanese is shown in Japanese games as English words that are pronounced like the Japanese words he is trying to say(with the actual Japanese below). As an example, one of his quotes is "Truly Pathetic" it is rendered in Japanese games as "SHOW SEA SEND BANG!", wish is an attempt at the Japanese phrase, Shoushi senban. In the American releases, his quotes are translated, and made into intelligible English sentences("You Are Truly Pathetic!").

Another example is his ending from the original Street Fighter Alpha, he unrolls a scroll, which is supposed to say "Mad Gear" in Japanese. However, there is humor in the way he spells it, he doesn't use Katakana (pieces of Kanji used to spell words not in Japanese) and instead uses Kanji. He writes "Ma" "Do" "Gi" and "-a" to phoentically spell out Mado Gia (Mad Gear). The humor lies in the fact that each Kanji has a meaning, so to someone who can read it, it appears as a random coupling of words "Devil", "guy", "honor", and "to come after"(as in rank, although the final Kanji could also mean "Asia" or "mute").