The Artisan
Member
I've been playing Tekken since I was like...9 years old I think, and eventually what gripped me to it was the story, I know most people don't play fighting games for that but I suck at actually playing the game. Tekken 7 is supposed to conclude the Mishima clan curse saga, so let's take a moment to go through all the mysteries that this franchise set up for itself.
Firstly, a lot of the stuff in this series gets retconned. It's retcon galore. I know because I remember being a kid on manji-clan.com's forum and the discussions that happened there. For instance, the characters Baek Doo San and Wang Jinrei were supposed to have been killed by Ogre, and part of the reason Hwoarang and Xiao enter the tournament respectively's for revenge. Later on those characters were just retconned into being injured by Ogre, but not killed. Again, I can't post evidence to prove this but this was something talked about from back in the day. Which kind of annoys me because that means pretty much none of the characters have died other than Jinpachi.
Some of the characters' ethnicities are sort of mixed up as well. Like in Tekken 3-4, Lei Wulong has a Chinese accent but in Tekken 5 it is replaced with an American accent. I'd consider that a retcon as well, or at the very least, an inconsistency. I believe Bryan Fury and Bruce Irvin were supposed to be drug dealing partners from back in the day as well, although it seems that's been retconned into them not really having a history. But I remember reading about that on manji-clan.com. They had a special intro together in TTT
Lee Chaolan (sp?) and Anna Williams were supposed to be somewhat romantically linked, and that was reimagined in the anime, but in Tekken Blood Vengeance, it seemed they didn't know who each other were. Although neither of those movies are canon.
Second of all, the origin of the Devil Gene is still kinda unclear. By the looks of Tekken 7 it seems like it is genetic, something that Kazuya inherited from his mother but in some of the T6 endings, they turned it into something that anybody can acquire. That's weird. I thought it was something that only Mishimas had to deal with. But there's a lot more questions that need answering, some we may not get the answer to but a lot of which was put out, I feel like, to make the player ask questions.
As for the non-canon endings, meaning the endings from Tag, and all the characters other than the protagonists in the canon games which weren't canon, I feel like just because they didn't further the story, doesn't mean they didn't happen. Like, we know King II did beat Craig Murdock so maybe he did visit him in the hospital. So his Tekken 4 ending did occur perhaps, he just didn't win the tournament.
Also, for example, Xiao's school TTT ending. She's talking to Jin. Perhaps wishing him luck in the tournament? So yeah, maybe some of the endings do have some sort of meaning and aren't purposeless. Which brings me to Kazuya's T2 ending; I thought the Devil character was Kazuya in Devil form. His transformation in TTT confirms this. So how is it he's in two places at once? Even though yes, that ending didn't happen...I'm just trying to make sense out of it.
tl;dr
-What is up with Steve Fox's scar?
-Who is Steve Fox's father?
-Was Jun really there in the Tekken 4 ending or was Jin hallucinating?
-Is Unknown really Jun or is that a trick?
-Is Unknown going to be more than just a Tag character?
-What is the significance of the wolf behind Unknown?
-Why does Unknown have the same (but kinda backwards) tattoo as Jin?
-What is the origin of Raven's X scar on his face?
-What was the monster in Dragunov's T5 ending?
-Will Asuka's father ever be a significant figure?
-Will Jin ever finally hook up with Xiao?
-Or...will he hook up with Asuka?
-Does Claudio have the Devil gene too?
-What is Gigas?
-Will Jane ever make a significant appearance along with Jack?
-Is Jin truly evil?
-Is Jin even aware of the fact that he has an uncle?
+more, that's just all off the top of my head.
EDIT: more
more burning questions off the top of my head
-Although Asuka's T5 ending wasn't canon (since she didn't win the tournament) - are the implicating events of the ending canon? Meaning,
-Is she, along with Xiao a potential romantic interest for Jin (again, I don't condone incestuous practices however it is true that in some cultures, cousin on cousin marriages are legal)
-Does she have the Devil reversal healing powers like Jun does?
Furthermore, going back on TTT, even though the game itself is not canon, I think some of the endings may be more than what meets the eye.
-Ogre's ending...where he lifts up a seemingly defeated Jin Kazama. What if this is cannon? What if this took place in between Paul's win against Ogre and Ogre's transformation to True Ogre? Behind the scenes, Unknown (whom we know is supposed to be Jun's sister) interrupts Ogre's probably execution of Jin. Perhaps it is after that in which Ogre transforms? Giving Jin time to recover and fight again?
-Again, just because a character didn't win the tournament doesn't necessarily mean their ending wasn't canon. King II didn't win Tekken 4, however, he did face Marduk and won. But left him alive. So it can be deduced that King II's Tekken 4 ending WAS canon. This a rather easy one, but how many other Tekken endings could've been canon? This includes the TTT games.
-This one is from me personally, but I wonder if Jin's Australian master will ever make a role. Most likely he won't, however, he/she being the one who taught Jin the ways of Karate, is surely aware of the fact that Jin started World War III. Is he not gonna feel any guilt or remorse for training the young man responsible? Again, most likely not, but I think it'd be interesting.
thinking...
-What is the full extent of Xiao's role in this series? At best, her crush/love for Jin has been nothing more than a running gag and the character herself has just been some ass-kicking happy go lucky chick. Not that I want the essence of her character changed, but should her role not be taken more seriously? I don't even know if Jin's devil gene is publicly known, so is Xiao yet to discover this side to Jin?
which reminds me,
this whole thing with Akuma is very confusing. First of all from just a gameplay standpoint, from everything I see from his very own design to fighting style, he doesn't seem like a Tekken character, he seems like a Street Fighter character fighting in a Street Fighter game, except not, since he's in a Tekken game. If this is a prelude to TxSF, shouldn't it have been that way? After all, all of the Tekken characters in SFxT did have the SF art style, and fighting. Bringing me to my next two questions.
-With all this considered, is it reasonable to believe that maybe Akuma is part of a "what if" side story scenario instead of being part of the canon story? I certainly can't be the only who finds it weird to add him to being an integral, vital part to the story.
-If I am wrong though, and he is in fact canon and has been the entire time, does that mean SFxT was canon as well? It would makes things really convoluted if it weren't, in fact, this would also have to mean that Namco X Capcom is canon as well because that was the first time all these characters crossed paths.
What do you think?
Firstly, a lot of the stuff in this series gets retconned. It's retcon galore. I know because I remember being a kid on manji-clan.com's forum and the discussions that happened there. For instance, the characters Baek Doo San and Wang Jinrei were supposed to have been killed by Ogre, and part of the reason Hwoarang and Xiao enter the tournament respectively's for revenge. Later on those characters were just retconned into being injured by Ogre, but not killed. Again, I can't post evidence to prove this but this was something talked about from back in the day. Which kind of annoys me because that means pretty much none of the characters have died other than Jinpachi.
Some of the characters' ethnicities are sort of mixed up as well. Like in Tekken 3-4, Lei Wulong has a Chinese accent but in Tekken 5 it is replaced with an American accent. I'd consider that a retcon as well, or at the very least, an inconsistency. I believe Bryan Fury and Bruce Irvin were supposed to be drug dealing partners from back in the day as well, although it seems that's been retconned into them not really having a history. But I remember reading about that on manji-clan.com. They had a special intro together in TTT
Lee Chaolan (sp?) and Anna Williams were supposed to be somewhat romantically linked, and that was reimagined in the anime, but in Tekken Blood Vengeance, it seemed they didn't know who each other were. Although neither of those movies are canon.
Second of all, the origin of the Devil Gene is still kinda unclear. By the looks of Tekken 7 it seems like it is genetic, something that Kazuya inherited from his mother but in some of the T6 endings, they turned it into something that anybody can acquire. That's weird. I thought it was something that only Mishimas had to deal with. But there's a lot more questions that need answering, some we may not get the answer to but a lot of which was put out, I feel like, to make the player ask questions.
As for the non-canon endings, meaning the endings from Tag, and all the characters other than the protagonists in the canon games which weren't canon, I feel like just because they didn't further the story, doesn't mean they didn't happen. Like, we know King II did beat Craig Murdock so maybe he did visit him in the hospital. So his Tekken 4 ending did occur perhaps, he just didn't win the tournament.
Also, for example, Xiao's school TTT ending. She's talking to Jin. Perhaps wishing him luck in the tournament? So yeah, maybe some of the endings do have some sort of meaning and aren't purposeless. Which brings me to Kazuya's T2 ending; I thought the Devil character was Kazuya in Devil form. His transformation in TTT confirms this. So how is it he's in two places at once? Even though yes, that ending didn't happen...I'm just trying to make sense out of it.
tl;dr
-What is up with Steve Fox's scar?
-Who is Steve Fox's father?
-Was Jun really there in the Tekken 4 ending or was Jin hallucinating?
-Is Unknown really Jun or is that a trick?
-Is Unknown going to be more than just a Tag character?
-What is the significance of the wolf behind Unknown?
-Why does Unknown have the same (but kinda backwards) tattoo as Jin?
-What is the origin of Raven's X scar on his face?
-What was the monster in Dragunov's T5 ending?
-Will Asuka's father ever be a significant figure?
-Will Jin ever finally hook up with Xiao?
-Or...will he hook up with Asuka?
-Does Claudio have the Devil gene too?
-What is Gigas?
-Will Jane ever make a significant appearance along with Jack?
-Is Jin truly evil?
-Is Jin even aware of the fact that he has an uncle?
+more, that's just all off the top of my head.
EDIT: more
more burning questions off the top of my head
-Although Asuka's T5 ending wasn't canon (since she didn't win the tournament) - are the implicating events of the ending canon? Meaning,
-Is she, along with Xiao a potential romantic interest for Jin (again, I don't condone incestuous practices however it is true that in some cultures, cousin on cousin marriages are legal)
-Does she have the Devil reversal healing powers like Jun does?
Furthermore, going back on TTT, even though the game itself is not canon, I think some of the endings may be more than what meets the eye.
-Ogre's ending...where he lifts up a seemingly defeated Jin Kazama. What if this is cannon? What if this took place in between Paul's win against Ogre and Ogre's transformation to True Ogre? Behind the scenes, Unknown (whom we know is supposed to be Jun's sister) interrupts Ogre's probably execution of Jin. Perhaps it is after that in which Ogre transforms? Giving Jin time to recover and fight again?
-Again, just because a character didn't win the tournament doesn't necessarily mean their ending wasn't canon. King II didn't win Tekken 4, however, he did face Marduk and won. But left him alive. So it can be deduced that King II's Tekken 4 ending WAS canon. This a rather easy one, but how many other Tekken endings could've been canon? This includes the TTT games.
-This one is from me personally, but I wonder if Jin's Australian master will ever make a role. Most likely he won't, however, he/she being the one who taught Jin the ways of Karate, is surely aware of the fact that Jin started World War III. Is he not gonna feel any guilt or remorse for training the young man responsible? Again, most likely not, but I think it'd be interesting.
thinking...
-What is the full extent of Xiao's role in this series? At best, her crush/love for Jin has been nothing more than a running gag and the character herself has just been some ass-kicking happy go lucky chick. Not that I want the essence of her character changed, but should her role not be taken more seriously? I don't even know if Jin's devil gene is publicly known, so is Xiao yet to discover this side to Jin?
which reminds me,
this whole thing with Akuma is very confusing. First of all from just a gameplay standpoint, from everything I see from his very own design to fighting style, he doesn't seem like a Tekken character, he seems like a Street Fighter character fighting in a Street Fighter game, except not, since he's in a Tekken game. If this is a prelude to TxSF, shouldn't it have been that way? After all, all of the Tekken characters in SFxT did have the SF art style, and fighting. Bringing me to my next two questions.
-With all this considered, is it reasonable to believe that maybe Akuma is part of a "what if" side story scenario instead of being part of the canon story? I certainly can't be the only who finds it weird to add him to being an integral, vital part to the story.
-If I am wrong though, and he is in fact canon and has been the entire time, does that mean SFxT was canon as well? It would makes things really convoluted if it weren't, in fact, this would also have to mean that Namco X Capcom is canon as well because that was the first time all these characters crossed paths.
What do you think?
