Ken Masters

Ken Masters (ケン・マスターズ Ken Masutāzu?) is a video game character and deuteragonist of the Street Fighter series, first appearing in the original Street Fighter. Similar to his longtime best friend and rival Ryu, Ken's goal is to test his power against many different fighters and strives to become stronger, but holds more restraint due to not wanting to jeopardize his family life.

Why He Rocks

 * 1) While he may come off as a bit arrogant and a little bit of a showoff, Ken is actually very disciplined and fights with honor and respect like his best friend and rival Ryu.
 * 2) He's a loving and caring husband and father to Eliza and Mel, both of whom serve as strong inspirations to him along with Ryu.
 * 3) His boisterous personality is a nice contrast and foil to Ryu's more stoic and serious personality.
 * 4) He never backs down no matter who his opponent is and is always up for a good fight.
 * 5) As mentioned before, he's Ryu's greatest rival and best friend and he shares a strong, brotherly-like relationship with him.
 * 6) He's the one who taught Karin the importance of fighting to become stronger and bettering yourself.
 * 7) He took Sean in as his pupil and trained him.
 * 8) He's won multiple US Championship tournaments.
 * 9) Despite how brash and egotistical he can be, he's actually really friendly and easygoing and will never hesitate to help out his friends, especially Ryu.
 * 10) He's very rich thanks in part to his family business and juggles his job with training. And guess what. He's STILL able to keep up with Ryu

Bad Qualities

 * 1) He can be kinda brash, arrogant and egotistical at times. Though it's never to the point where he becomes unlikable.
 * 2) He sometimes has the tendency to dump Sean off on Ryu whenever he prefers to do something else.

Trivia

 * As a result of potential lawsuits, Ken was given the last name "Masters" so he would not be confused with Ken Carson from Barbie, a Mattel owned franchise.
 * When fought as a CPU opponent in some games, particularly Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter EX, Ken will occasionally do a light Shoryuken, followed by a medium one as soon as he lands, and then a strong one. This AI behavior has remained consistent in most of his appearances.
 * In the SFIII Q&A from Gamest's SFIII Fanbook, when asked if he's still entering fighting competitions after having a son and moving to the west coast, Ken confirms that he's not been able to after Mel's birth. But he'll make an exception if Ryu participates.
 * In SNK vs. Capcom: SvC Chaos, as Violent Ken, his battle stance in his intro is similar to Akuma's and Evil Ryu's; however, he turns clockwise instead of counterclockwise.