Well, Alex finally made his long awaited debut in Street Fighter 6. And it does seem fans are ecstatic with how Capcom re-engineered the character. This iteration is much more than just your standard grappler. Oh, he still has a really good command throw that can take away a quarter of your life. But Alex is a lot more than that in Street Fighter 6. Capcom gave him a lot of gimmicks, such as his new Prowler stance and how some counter hits automatically turn into command throws. All of this makes him feel like a totally new character and a lot of Street Fighter fans are extremely happy with how Alex plays. In fact, thanks to Alex, Street Fighter 6 might have broke its own record of the most number of concurrent players playing just as he got released.

Although fans are extremely happy with how Alex plays, a lot of them are not too amused with Alex’s updated lore. As Street Fighter 6 actually takes place after Street Fighter III, Capcom also had to update what happened to Alex in-between the two games. Why? Well, it’s because, apparently, Alex married and is expecting a baby with his stepsister and second cousin, Patricia.

No, this isn’t something that fans have concocted in their own heads. This isn’t something only hardcore Street Fighter fans would know. This is actually something Capcom made sure all Street Fighter fans know because they baked all of this information into Alex’s arcade and World Tour‘s story! It’s all there for everyone to see!

So, anyway, a little history lesson first and why fans are extremely upset with this.

Alex first made his debut in Street Fighter III. He was supposed to be the “hero” of the game but fans didn’t like him for various reasons. Mostly because he wasn’t Ryu and Ken. Also, the first version of Street Fighter III, the New Generation, wasn’t that great of a game. So, when you’re the “hero” of a not great game, you also get treated like you’re a not so great character. Anyway, as Capcom tweaked Street Fighter III, some fans did take a liking to Alex and, eventually, he did become a fan favorite. He’s become one of those characters that, whenever Capcom makes a new Street Fighter game, fans ask if Alex will be in it.

Time passed and Alex did eventually come out in a new Street Fighter game. Street Fighter V, to be exact. And he suuuucked! No one really played Alex, even the diehard Alex fans! There was just something about how he played in Street Fighter V. It certainly didn’t help that Capcom totally messed his design by giving him french fries hair and legs that seemed to bend backwards!

Still, that only made hardcore Alex fans want a better version of the character. And it looked like we were going to be getting just that in Street Fighter 6! For one, Capcom totally changed Alex’s look. He looked much more grittier with his beanie, fur-lined vest jacket and jeans! This was a sign that this wasn’t the same Alex from before! Things only got more hype when Capcom revealed Alex’ gameplay trailer. He wasn’t the same old grappler from the past! This was a guy with a few new tricks up his sleeve! This was a totally new version of Alex. And people were excited!

And it did look like Capcom made good on its promise as Street Fighter 6’s Alex is probably the best version of the character. They made him into this hybrid grappler and stance fighter, making him one of the trickiest characters to play and fight against. He also has a lot of moves that can pressure the opponent thanks to heavy normals that are plus on block if he holds the button down. This makes his strike/throw game really strong! This version of Alex doesn’t need to just powerbomb his way to success as he can link his normals together and juggle opponents and do a lot of damage, something you normally see with more lithe fighters.

So Alex fans were now happy as their guy was finally good! But while Alex is a good character, Capcom really messed up by pulling the entire things about him marrying his stepsister and second cousin thing!

Now, if you didn’t know about this entire bloodline situation, his arcade more ending actually looks sweet. Alex turned heel, the wrestling term for “villain”, as he was always hated, mirroring how fans didn’t like him when he first showed up in Street Fighter III. So, when you see his ending, where he goes home to his pregnant wife, Patricia, and he has a cute moment when he reacts to feeling his baby kick, it’s actually really sweet. The problem reels its ugly head when you play through World Tour and recruit Alex to be your master. This is when you learn that Tom, his adoptive father and Patricia’s biological father, took him in after Alex’s parents died because Alex’s mom is Tom’s cousin! So, when you figure this out, Alex’s arcade ending starts to feel a little icky, doesn’t it?

Now, here’s the weird thing: I actually understand what Capcom was going for here. Even way back in Street Fighter III, when you play through Alex’s arcade mode, I did get a sense Capcom was already planning to make him and Patricia a couple. Sure, they were step-siblings but… hey. At least they weren’t blood related? Yeah, it’s still a little gross but at least they weren’t really related, right?

The problem is that little added lore of Tom being Alex’s mom’s cousin as I don’t remember this being part of Alex’s original story! I’m almost positive this wasn’t the case before as, in Tom’s official bio in Capcom’s official database when Street Fighter V was out, it just states Tom took Alex in because Alex was, and I quote, “the son of a friend of his”. No mention of Alex’s mother being Tom’s cousin or anything like that!

It also doesn’t help that this is more of a cultural problem than an actual lore problem. You see, in Japan, where I am assuming all of the lore was written and developed, it is totally fine to marry your second cousin over there. While I don’t believe they’re all lining up to find a wife during their family reunions these days, it’s definitely not as icky or unheard of like it is in most Western cultures. And I honestly cannot believe I did a whole mess of research on the topic because of a video game! And here’s the really weird and messed up thing about it. Alex is from New York and… guess what? It’s actually legal to marry your first cousin in New York! Bet a lot of you didn’t expect that, huh? Like I said, I cannot believe I did a whole mess of research on this! I dread to find out what sort of ads I’ll be getting tomorrow after doing all of this research!

But just because it’s legal doesn’t mean people are fine with the idea as seen by the enormous backlash after a lot of fans figured this out. I actually blame all of Capcom for this. Even if Alex’s new lore was written by Capcom Japan, you would think someone from Capcom USA read through the text while they were localizing it and thought, “Wait, we can’t have Alex marrying and impregnating his second cousin!” You would think that but they didn’t! So, now we’re in the situation we’re in!

I guess the question becomes if Capcom should “patch this out” in the future. Honestly, I don’t think they will and I don’t think they should. While this development definitely turned off a lot of Alex fans, like I said, this is more of a cultural thing, making this a “me” problem rather than a “you/Capcom” issue. Still, this would actually be a super easy fix as all they would have to do is rewrite that one line in World Tour where they mention that Tom is Alex’s mother’s cousin. Revert it to Alex being the son of Tom’s friend and everything would be fine. Or would it? I mean, the idea of Alex marrying Patricia, his stepsister and second cousin, is already out there! So, even if Capcom did change the lore in the game, we all know that wasn’t the original intention. So, it’s actually kind of useless to change it. So, might as well keep it as is it now.

Still, eww!

What are your thoughts on the entire “Alex marrying his stepsister and second cousin” situation? Let me know in the comments section below!