T. Hawk

In video games

T. Hawk is one of the four new characters introduced in Super Street Fighter II. He is a member of the fictional Thunderfoot indigenous American clan, whose homeland was taken over 30 years before the events of the game by M. Bison, who also murdered his father, Arroyo Hawk. Thunder Hawk enters the tournament to reclaim his homeland from Bison. T. Hawk has always been billed as originating from Mexico. His backstory states that he was born in the Sonoran desert and resides in the Monte Albán plains. His second appearance as a playable character was in the home versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3, in which he leaves his home village after the disappearances of some of the locals. His last opponent before fighting Bison is Juli, one of Bison's bodyguards. The girl T. Hawk is searching for is revealed to be Julia, who was captured and brainwashed into becoming one of Bison's assassins named Juli. T. Hawk again returns in Super Street Fighter IV. He has regained his homeland following the events of the Street Fighter II series, but must fight Shadaloo once more, this time to rescue Julia, who has disappeared again. His rival is El Fuerte, who challenges him after a previous, as yet undisclosed defeat at T. Hawk's hands.

During the development of Super Street Fighter II, T. Hawk was named "Geronimo", but it was changed after an American staff member suggested that the name "Geronimo" might be seen as racially offensive. Despite his massive frame, he is much quicker and more maneuverable than the series other large type characters such as Zangief and Sagat.

Other appearances

In the 1994 live-action film version of Street Fighter, T. Hawk (played by Gregg Rainwater) is portrayed as a military sergeant serving the Allied Nations Peacekeeping Force under Colonel Guile. In this version he is portrayed as a Native American. He also makes a small appearance in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, in which he travels to America to seek out and defeat Ken Masters. Despite landing some good blows, T. Hawk is defeated, and he develops a new respect for Ken. In the American cartoon series Street Fighter, T. Hawk's has temporarily quit the Street Fighters to work for Satin Hammer as an undercover agent. Unlike in the games, T. Hawk has the ability to fly in the first two episodes he appears in, but for unknown reasons, the power wears off later on.

Reception

UGO.com listed T. Hawk as one of Street Fighter's "unforgettable characters," alongside Blanka, Chun-Li, Sagat, M. Bison, Zangief, Dhalsim, Vega, Balrog, E. Honda, Guile, Cammy, Dee Jay, and Fei Long. In 2011, Dorkly ranked him as the third most stereotypical Native American [sic] character in video games (T. Hawk is actually supposed to be an indigenous Mexican in the game series), commenting on his appearance: "This is what science imagines men looked like back when dinner meant choking a woolly mammoth to death." In 2012, Complex magazine ranked T. Hawk as the second most stereotypical character in video games (representing stereotypical 'Native Americans'), commenting, "this fighter sets an entire people back to teepees and scalping" and adding, "Ah Thunderhawk, if you die in a John Wayne movie, it will be only fitting." They also placed him 23rd in their article titled "Street Fighter: The Best Warriors in the History of the Series", stating he became "an absolute powerhouse" by the time of his appearance in Super Street Fighter IV. On the other hand, GamesRadar included this "obligatory Native American" on their 2012 list of the worst Street Fighter characters ever.