Sagat



"Do not challenge what you can not defeat!" —Sagat

Sagat (サガット/สกัด) is a character in the Street Fighter series. He was originally a boss character in the early editions of series. He was later turned into a regular, playable character. According to Street Fighter co-creator Finish Hiroshi, Sagat's style was modeled after dramatic television kickboxing personalities.

Story
Sagat won the title of Emperor/God of Muay Thai from Nuah Kahn as a teenager, and became a national hero in Thailand. He defended his title from a fighter named Go Hibiki, in a match that cost Sagat the use of his right eye, and cost Go his life. Go's son, Dan, swore revenge on Sagat.

Street Fighter
Sagat trained Adon, and held the first World Warrior tournament to prove that he was not only the strongest Muay Thai fighter, but the strongest fighter in the world. Only one fighter managed to reach Sagat: a young martial artist named Ryu. Initially, Sagat was able to pin Ryu, and was sure that he was the winner of the match, even going to help Ryu up. However, Ryu became desperate to win the fight and was consumed by the Satsui no Hadou and his "Evil Ryu" side and executed the Metsu Shoryuken, grievously wounding Sagat and leaving a massive scar across his chest. Because of this event, Sagat has sworn revenge on Ryu.

Street Fighter Alpha series
Adon mocked his teacher for losing to Ryu and challenged him for the title of God of Muay Thai. His rage blinded him, and Sagat lost to Adon, but not before beating the younger man so hard that he would be in traction for four months. Consumed with rage and hatred, Sagat eagerly joined the criminal organization known as Shadaloo. M. Bison had offered him Shadaloo resources to find Ryu and provide Sagat with a rematch. Sagat's nearly indomitable power provided him with the position of Bison's personal bodyguard, one of the feared Four Heavenly Kings (四天王(してんのう), Shitennō?) of Shadoloo.

During his tenure in Shadaloo, Sagat encountered Dan, now an adult seeking revenge for his father's death in the fight with Sagat. Sagat realized how anger can make people do things they regret, so he purposely lost the fight (although Dan doesn't believe that he did), which allowed Dan to defeat him and satisfy his anger.

Sagat realized that his scar was a result of the killing intent which possessed Ryu called the Satsui no Hadou. Finally, he understood that true rivals should not be blinded by rage and hatred, nor be seduced by it, and realized Bison's real intentions.

However, Bison presented him with a brainwashed Ryu, and told Sagat he could have the rematch he always wanted. Despite Sagat's disappointment with fighting a corrupted opponent, Sagat still fought Ryu. To break Bison's mind control, he implored to Ryu that a true warrior would not give in to such treachery. Ryu awakened from Bison's control and, rejecting the Satsui no Hadou, drove Bison off. Sagat finally realized that rivalries must have their limits.

Street Fighter II
While Sagat's goal in the second World Warrior tournament was a clean rematch with Ryu, his hopes were eclipsed when Ryu was knocked out of the competition, therefore he dropped out of the tournament before his next match, finishing third in the tournament. Sagat continued to train his body and mind in Thailand, hoping to become the world's strongest fighter once again before he became too old to do so.

Super Street Fighter IV
After the second World Warrior Tournament, Sagat lapses into a depression, "feeling like a loser". Attending one of Adon's matches in search of "something to reignite [his] spirit", he is mocked and challenged to a match by his former pupil. Defeating Adon with his Tiger Destruction, Sagat is cheered on by the fans. Reinvigorated, he then enters S.I.N.'s new tournament in the hopes of a rematch with Ryu and discovering the "ultimate purpose of the fight". After the tournament, Sagat reflects on his obsession with Ryu, realizing that instead of focusing on victory or defeat, what's truly important is communicating one's soul to the opponent through one's fists. Sagat compares his former self to Seth, whose fists Sagat says were "mute", and wonders whether he has changed now. Returning home his village, he is greeted by Chit, her older brother, and a monk (characters who all appear in the second volume of Masahiko Nakahira's Ryu Final manga) who ask how the tournament went. Sagat replies that he "actually had fun" because he "met an old friend" (presumably Ryu).

Street Fighter
In the live action movie, Victor Sagat is depicted as an underground mob boss in Shadaloo City and the bodyguard for the insane dictator General Bison. In contrast to his rivalry with Ryu in the games, the film version of Sagat was depicted as Ken's rival instead. He was a cage fighter named Iron Fist before retiring to head the Shadaloo Tong, which controlled the city's criminal operations. Ryu and Ken (a couple of con artists) attempt to sell him fake guns, but Sagat uncovers the plot and orders them killed. Ryu and Ken manage to beat Sagat's men to a pulp until they are stopped by Sagat's bodyguards with real guns. Impressed, Sagat plans for Ryu and Ken to be the next opponents of his cage-fighting champion and best friend, Vega. But just before Ryu and Vega can fight, Colonel Guile crashes into the arena with his tank and arrests them all, including Sagat, Vega, Ryu and Ken, taking them to the AN (Allied Nations) headquarters.

In prison, Sagat once again orders Ryu and Ken beaten up by his men, but Ryu and Ken hold off for a good while until Guile, Cammy and T. Hawk spot them apparently fighting against Sagat as possible allies to the AN. Guile makes a plan with Ryu and Ken to "escape" from prison and "kill" him in the process, while carrying a homing device which Guile and the AN will use to track Sagat to Bison's lair. The plan goes well, and Sagat accepts Ryu and Ken as his allies, unaware that they are actually spying on him.

Sagat and his men all flee to the AN headquarters and seek refuge with Bison at the black market, where they all watch a magic show by the Benbelli Brothers (in reality Chun-Li, Balrog and Honda, all bent on revenge on Sagat and Bison). Here, Sagat shows Bison a sample of the weapons he will be supplying him with, and the crafty Bison attempts to pay him with a trunk of Bison Dollars which he will establish after taking the Earth over. An enraged Sagat refuses, and calls Bison a conniving lunatic, prompting them to terminate their partnership until Ryu and Ken (in a desperate attempt to get the homing device to Bison's fortress and call Guile) inform them of a lorry filled with explosives (by Chun-Li, Balrog and Honda) heading straight for them. Allied once again, Bison, Sagat, Vega, Ryu, Ken and the two armies flee the tent just before the explosion.

Sagat and his men then go with Bison to the hidden base, where they are "welcome to stay". Sagat is also present at Bison's attempt to blow Guile's stealth boat up with mines (Sagat is horrified to see Guile alive, and Bison taunts his eyepatch as the cause of his not knowing of Ryu and Ken's escape plan with Guile), and at the execution of the fifty-three relief workers Bison had taken hostage. After Guile and his army finally arrive just before the execution, Sagat and Vega deduce Ryu and Ken to have led them there, and plan to ambush and kill them in revenge.

Sagat and Vega corner Ryu in the locker room and start to beat him up, until Ryu knocks Vega aside and Sagat himself is punched aside by Ken, who found Ryu after getting separated from him. Ken and Sagat then fight their own battle in the base's gym while Ryu and Vega fight. At first, Sagat appears to have the upper hand, until Ken manages to use some of the gym equipment to hurt Sagat and finally score a knockout, hitting Sagat into a nearby wall. But just before leaving with Ryu, who knocked Vega out, Ken gives Sagat a "thank-you" present in the form of a golden figurine (he supposedly made him what he now is).

With the base collapsing, Sagat abandones Vega and escapes with Dee Jay through a secret passage to avoid being arrested by the AN. They make it out just before the explosion, and swim through a river to shore with a trunk full of Bison's money. But in the end, Sagat and Dee Jay both get their comeuppance when they open the trunk and see that it's actually filled with the useless Bison Dollars (Bison is presumed killed in the explosion, thus ending the war).

Gameplay
Sagat plays similarly to Ken and Ryu, with some notable differences. Foremost is his attack range: his low attacks and standing horizontal kicks have impressive range. In Street Fighter II, producing an array of alternating high and low fireball attacks can confuse and greatly damage an opponent. This technique is less viable in later games where projectiles do less damage, or can otherwise be avoided. In Capcom vs. SNK 2, Sagat's normal attacks, particularly his crouching fierce punch, have unusually high power and priority, making him one of the easiest characters to use effectively in that game. He is also known for his multiple-hitting Tiger Uppercut (Tiger Blow in the Alpha series) which is similar to Ken and Ryu's Shoryuken/Dragon Punch. The Tiger Blow had low priority against Shoryuken. In Street Fighter IV, the Tiger Uppercut has priority even over Ken's EX Shoryuken. Sagat's attacks do much more damage than Ryu or Ken. Sagat's supermoves such as Tiger Genocide have great priority.

In SSF2T, his "Old Sagat" incarnation is soft banned in Japan, because his fireballs combined with the occasional Tiger Uppercut make him overly effective and easy to use. Additionally, while he is not as broken as Akuma, his presence in American tournaments has seen certain characters completely ignored due to their almost un-winnable match-ups against Sagat. In Japan, the soft ban, while violated more frequently than the Akuma soft ban, has allowed a larger cast of characters to flourish.

Actors
Since Street Fighter Alpha, Sagat has been voiced by Shinichirou Miki. In SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, Sagat was voiced by Kouji Suizu.

In the live-action Street Fighter movie, he was portrayed by well-known Native American actor Wes Studi.