Headscratchers / The King of Fighters

The King of Fighters

• So is Geese alive or dead?
  • Depends. Is Rock Howard in the game?
    • Ah, but he is. And he's in Terry's winpose in 2001/2002 if I remember rightly. Does this mean that Geese is alive but Rock still lives with Terry? Are they raising him together? What is it? Of course, I always got the impression that Geese was barely aware of or cared about his family anyway so it's plausible that Terry adopted him. It still doesn't make sense.
  • A winquote from Terry to Billy from The King of Fighters 2003 suggests that he is alive. Note, however, that in the Fatal Fury timeline, he's been officially dead since late 1995/early 1996.
    • Uh, his BIG OBVIOUS APPEARANCE in '96 oughta put paid to this question.
  • He's alive in the main timeline, dead in Maximum Impact and his origin series. Schrödinger's Cat is obviously in effect here.
  • See the Wild Mass Guessing entry for a theory on this. The theory can't possibly be accurate because it causes a "Geese is alive" universe to segue into a "Geese is dead" universe without allowing time for Geese to die, but since it's my guess I'm willing to let that slide.
  • Also, it's rumored that there's a Real Life reason to not include Geese in the KOF games anymore: as a sign of respect to the original Fatal Fury developers, who were laid off right before SNK became SNK Playmore.
  • Plus, Terry ended up switching from his classic attire to his Garou look and back again to his old one.
• Why does Iori hate Kyo so much?
  • It's an ancestral grudge that the Yagami have against the Kusanagi; the Yagami turned from the sacred pact to gain power from Orochi, and the Kusanagi didn't like that.
    • Iori also hates fighting and violence (no, seriously). He blames Kyo for forcing him to constantly enter KOF tournaments (by existing and being a Kusanagi. Yeah.).
    • Well, I read in the SNK Wiki that Iori doesn't really remember just why he hates Kyo so much, but it is mentioned that he doesn't care about his family history.
    • Also, during his training, his father traumatized him and conditioned him to blame it all on the Kusanagi.
    • If I could sum up their rivalry, it would go a little something like this:
  Iori: I hate you.
  Kyo: But why?
  Iori: Because fuck you, that's why.
  Kyo: Yeah, well I hate you too! You're going down, Yagami!
  Iori: Joke's on you, I hate violence.
  Kyo: But, you've beaten the shit out of almost everyone that's ever been in this tournament and you've even killed 2 people without batting an eye...
  Iori: SHUT UP, I HATE VIOLENCE!
• Why didn't Orochi use his god-like powers to simply erase the Sacred Treasures team from existence, or even destroy the world as soon as he manifested?
  • Just because he's a god doesn't mean he's omnipotent.
  • That's not necessarily true. While he is god-like, he is only a servant of a higher god, Gaia.
  • Perhaps it was a case of him wanting to show them how powerful he is by killing them slowly and effortlessly.
• Just who the hell is Ash Crimson, why does he have green flames, and why does he need the Sacred Treasures? Also, why is he such a cocky bastard?
  • Who? There was never an Ash Crimson in The King of Fighters. You must be thinking of some other series.
  • Play XIII. See the Story Mode. Check the ending. That explains it all.
• Is Rugal Bernstein really dead?
  • 1998 and 2002 were "Dream Match" installments. Rugal has not "actually" appeared since dying in 1995.
    • I know that. There are hints in the storyline games that he isn't really dead, ie. the extra art in '95 that shows tanks filled with Rugal clones, the fact that his hobby is resurrection, and in 2000 when used as a striker, he runs off like all of the other chracters who are alive instead of fading away like the dead ones (Goenitz, the New Faces guys, Vice and Mature).
    • Given that he only appears in "Dream Matches" and that he has no involvement in the storyline since his visible death in '95 he is dead for any practical purposes, regardless of his striker animation. Also, the extra art tends to be very capricious in nature and the resurrection hobby statement was probably a joke made for his '98 bio sheet.
    • Why is the extra art capricious?
    • Remember the 2000 Strikers? Dead ones would phase out of existence after an attack. Rugal didn't... just saying...
  • Yeah. How can you be sure? Simple... Adelheid. The one absolute rock-solid sign that a video game company has laid a dead character to rest and is willing to move on: make a replacement. Cf. Rock Howard, Asuka Kazama, Maxi, etc.
    • Astaroth didn't replace Rock, Jin Kazama didn't replace Kazuya Mishima, and none of the Street Fighter III characters replaced the SFII cast.
    • Astaroth is just a big lug, Jin was ORIGINALLY a replacement (note how much his style changed between 3 and 4), and the SFIII' gang are very much their own (and remain so as of SFIV). Besides, SNK Playmore is one of the little guys; they're not about to buck a fundamental rule like this.
    • That's still not very good logic as to why he's dead. The official King of Fighters site treats '98 and 2002 as though they're just like the rest of the games, not some completely fictional dream match within the universe. His hobby is resurrection, funny sure, but no less true, and it says specifically that "In the subsequent titles of KOF '98 and KOF 2002, Rugal was brought back not once but twice to conclude storylines." That's right, to conclude storylines. Furthermore it goes on to state that he was in his most powerful state in '98. Also he even cameos in XIII, occasionally taking over the Skynoah's monitor feed and watching the match for a few seconds before the feed goes back to normal.
    • Verse's victory quote over Mature in XIV points to Rugal being dead, at least in the world brought about after Ash Crimson's actions in XIII. His status now that Verse was defeated and the souls he carried were set free is iffy, especially considering how Ash Crimson revives after his soul gets returned to him in Official Invititation Team's ending and Orochi has to get sealed again in Yagami Team's ending.
• Who was the person (or persons) who beat up Takuma in the Art of Fighting team's 2003 ending?
  • Popular theory is it was Eiji Kisaragi.
  • Another (and more likely) is that it's Ryuji Yamazaki. He could even fit the "Street Thug" profile, pimp coat aside.
  • Some supplementary material for XI states that he was beaten up by street thugs, which is bullshit in itself since this is TAKUMA SAKAZAKI we're talking about. He would have easily turned them all inside out within a jiffy and old age is no excuse since look at Tung Fu Rue. Then again, the XI website claims organ problems made him collapse and that he used it as an excuse to have Ryo and Yuri carry on the legacy
• Why does Iori claim to hate violence in his official profile when he's one of the most violent fighters in the series?
  • Perhaps he can't fully control the bloodthirsty Orochi taint in his blood.
  • It might also be because he really, really hates being in KOF, and takes his anger out on the other fighters even though he doesn't usually like violence. Just because he dislikes violence doesn't mean he can't have a temper.
  • Ditto for the response above me. But it states that he does not like violence. And just because he does not like violence does not mean he does not like fighting in general.
  • One thing is being violent while fighting but staying focused, another is being senselessly violent. There are counted times in canon (as far as I recall) when Iori downright used violence without any kind of control: when he killed Vice and Mature under the effects of the Riot of the Blood, and when he beat Kyo and Shingo while also under the ROTB. It's next to no wonder he dislikes senseless violence, considering the in-story consequences.
  • The canonicity of this is debatable, but this scan from the King of Fantasy◊ (the light novel spin-off where Iori gets isekai'd; yes, really) reveals that fighting in a cowardly way (i.e. beating up someone who can't or isn't willing to fight back) is what constitutes as "violence" to Iori, and therefore, what he dislikes. Therefore, him fighting against an equally hostile opponent is fair game to him.
• Why does Iori insist on killing Kyo with his bare hands? Why not just shoot him?
  • Given he's a martial artist, any other way but through his own power would sully it.
  • Also, remember that he hates violence. Guns are impersonal, and he probably would be too sickened by the idea to actually do it without putting himself in blood rage mode.
  • Whip has a super where she whips out a huge pistol and shoots it square in the opponent's face. It does a little over 40% damage to the average character. Yeah, I doubt a regular-ass gun could do anything against most of the superpowered KOF cast.
• How can Adelheid and Rose be so loaded if Rugal was a crime lord? Wouldn't all of his money be taken by the government? For that matter, who was the mother of Rugal's kids?
  • Swiss bank account? Besides, considering how cool of a ship Blacknoah is, I wouldn't be surprised if Rugal lived in that instead of taking the risk of living on land where an authority could get him. As for their parents I have one theory...
  • According to the backstory, Rugal's influence due to being an arms dealer was so great that he could pull strings in military and governmental affairs. And even if they did come after Rugal, he'd [insert word here] them up. As for Adel and Rose, they live in Skynoah, just like their daddy did with the Blacknoah.
  • Rugal was closer to a corrupt defense contractor (like Lockheed Martin or BAE Systems) than some two-bit third-world AK-47 seller. Given that the world spends over 1.5 trillion dollars on weaponry, and Rugal supposedly controlled a percentage of that, his wealth would be several tens of billions. Then on top of that he has the illegal criminal activities (drugs, human trafficking) and had knowledge of forbidden rituals.
• How did the Sakazakis get so many enemies that an Anti-Kyokugen team was formed in XI? They're weird, but not necessarily evil or anything...
  • Kasumi Todoh does it out of obligation, as her dojo are rivals with the Kyokugen dojo. Yuri insulted Malin for using weapons, and Malin hates Yuri's way of speaking. Eiji... well, he just hates them.
    • I guess it's a Running Gag that's why they are hated so much.
    • Eiji was employed to kill Ryo, Robert, and/or Yuri, but all he got was a $500 Italian loafer in his face (and if Robert used his → ← → + K) move, repeatedly) for his troubles. He's been pretty bitter ever since.
• Why does Andy insist on not marrying one of the hottest women in the world of video games, especially when she insists on it herself?
  • Because the Word of God claims it's mostly one-sided, her towards him.
  • I take it that means Andy's not a lover of women.
    • So if a man doesn't want to marry a "hot woman", he is gay? What are you, 12 years old? Also, "hotness" is subjective.
  • Also keep in mind that when Andy trained with Hanzo (Mai's grandfather), he'd been living around Mai for quite a long time. It's possible that he's just been around her so long that he just sees her more as a sister or cousin or what have you. Oops, Mai?
    • He's just one sort of character type (common in anime) or a mix of two: Celibate Hero and Chaste Hero, considering the hints given in the games. Also, in the The King of Fighters series, specifically '99 and 2001, the interactions between the couple suggest, albeit in a jokingly manner (Mai shows Andy a fake baby and he's scared), that they probably slept together at least once. Those animations were probably inspired by the fans interpretations of Andy's attitude, but since KOF uses some degree of Status Quo Is God they didn't seem to have much of an impact.
  • It may be because KOF suffers from some degree of Status Quo Is God, as nobody ages (unlike in Fatal Fury, where the fate of most of the characters were not revealed in the last game) or changes his/her life significantly. Having Mai getting married would also probably detract from her popularity as she is currently little more than the Ms. Fanservice of the series (or any other game where she has recently appeared).
  • After 15 years (give or take a Friedman Unit), I think the cold, hard truth is that he simply isn't the marrying type. This is a man who travels thousands of miles just to find a place to train, almost certainly knows numerous languages by this point, and will fight just about anywhere... why would he want to get tied down to a family? I also remind everyone that "wife" is a vastly greater commitment than "casual eye candy and occasional booty call."
  • ... Or maybe how one of the hottest women in the KOF world chases after him relentlessly IS exactly the reason why he doesn't want to settle down with her. Hot or not, in Real Life Mai's actions would be seen as extremely clingy and annoying, if not as downright creepy and desperate. Maybe Andy would've said yes or at least considered settling down... if she had not done such stuff. She wanted him to be with her so bad that, in the end, she only succeeded in pushing him away.
  • Considering they're finally together in XIV, it looks like he was just a bit slow on the uptake.
• How in the hell can Mai Shiranui be in any way related to that little troll Gen-in Shiranui from Samurai Shodown? Did the Shiranui clan abduct a lot of supermodels for brides at some point? The Word of God is inconsistent about their connection or lack of it...
  • And on another note, why aren't there connections between Samurai Shodown and The King of Fighters? It's the one SNK fighting game not folded into that timeline...
    • Mai is not related to Gen-an; qv. Buster and Babs Bunny.
    • Actually, the first poster is right. SNK has sometimes said they are, and sometimes not. The Fanon is that they aren't, and the references to them being related are just jokes. And as for how it could be possible... Azami, who is shown to love Gen-An, and to have had his children in his Samurai Shodown II ending, is a fairly attractive girl, despite dressing like a B-Movie cavewoman.
    • I'm not sure about that according to this picture◊ having a hot wife hasn't seemed to do much.
    • They probably didn't feel the need to make any connection between those series. The King of Fighters works better as a spinoff to various series than as a consistent shared timeline.
    • The closest they've come to making a connection between Samurai Shodown and KOF is having Hayate (hero of the Savage Reign series) make a cameo in a Samurai Shodown V ending, and also be playable in KOF XI. Well, that, and having Kyo and Iori make cameos in the Samurai Shodown RPG.
    • There's also the matter of Kim Hae-Ryeong from SamSho Sen. Given how similar Hae-Ryeong is to Kim, it wouldn't be surprising if he ended up being Kim's ancestor, although nothing has been confirmed.
    • In the Samurai Shodown series the Shiranui clan is composed of two warring factions: one whose members have half demonic blood and one who doesn't. Gen-An leads the faction with demon blood, while the Mai lookalike who kills him on his ending in the first game leads the other faction. Also, in the second game Gen-An gives up on trying to become a devil king for the sake of his family, and as a result his wife gives birth to a normal looking child.
• Why is K' called a clone of Kyo if he looks nothing like him? The same goes for Krizalid and K9999, both who have been referred to as "perfect" clones of Kyo. In addition, why does K9999 have powers that are nothing like Kyo's if he is a clone?
  • Technically, K' isn't a clone, just an ordinary human who was kidnapped, experimented on and imbued with Kyo's powers (the experiment failed, thus the gloves to keep his powers under control); people call him a "clone" to simplify things. As for Krizalid and K9999... good question.
    • I can answer this for both of you. In the KOF series, cloning is way different, as cloning refers to both injecting an already existing organism with another's DNA (K') and to creating a clone from scratch from that "clone's" DNA (K9999). But here's where the Mind Screw works: Krizalid, the aformentioned clone in the above entry, and Kula Diamond, the Genki Girl (former Defrosting Ice Queen slightly emo chick) are clones of K'. And they too were already existing organisms. The mind boggles...
    • Genetic engineering and cloning aren't the same things! Quit messing with my head!
  • To further mind screw you, When Clone Zero revealed to Whip that Krizalid was a clone of K', he could have been lying. What we do know for sure is that whatever procedure NESTS uses to create their clone, their memory is always... faulty. Having said this, There is the possibility that both Krizzalid and K' were/are Whip's brother. How you may ask? Krizalid could well be the older brother of K'. That accounts for the similar yet different physical traits the two share and Krizalid's certainty that Whip is his sister. As a side note, why would they Manipulate Krizalid's memories to think Whip was his sister? What would they gain from that?
    • Krizalid was indeed stated to be a clone of K' in '99, but there's nothing to support the theory that Kula was; the only other person cloned from K' was Nameless, who K9999 was retconned out of continuity in favor of (more accurately, cloned from K' and Kyo's DNA). If anything, it's more likely that Kula, as with K', was a normal person before being infused with the Kusanagi genes, reverse engineered through the Anti-K' project to produce ice (she wears a pair of gloves not unlike the one owned by K' to regulate her power). Regardless, it is the case that much of the backstory for the NESTS saga could stand to be clearer.
    • Unless I miscomprehended it, Nameless and Isolde are more along the lines of K'; ordinary people abducted and injected with DNA. Nameless and his "brothers" (most of whom died due to a fatal combination of How Do I Shot Web? and Power Incontinence) are referred to as "K' children", and (unlike K9999, as far as I know), were not built from the ground or cloned in the conventional sense (i.e. Kyo-1 & Kyo-2 or Clone Zero).
• On top of that, why just kidnap Kyo? Why not Athena, Kensou (soldiers with psychic powers), Iori (who also wields flames), or Benimaru (electricity)?
  • Kyo has beaten, or is stronger than, all of them.
  • Apparently, Kyo's bloodline is naturally more powerful (he landed the final blow on Orochi), and his "crimson flames" can be inherited, while most of other characters powers are acquired by training and can't be transmitted by their genes.
    • More exactly: Athena is the current reincarnation of a goddess and her powers cannot be cloned or passed to others. Kensou is one of the hosts of the Dragon Spirit and his powers also can't be cloned or passed on (unless it's Bao). Iori is too unreliable and apparently, to have violet flames, you have to either go through special blood pacts (re: Aoi Kusanagi) or be a Kusanagi member who'd lost him/herself to their own blood lust (re: Souji and Kyo... almost). Benimaru... uhm, I guess it's because Kyo defeated him and thus proved his superior fighting skills.
    • Also, Iori has Riot of the Blood, which is not a good thing for obedient clones to have.
    • It's heavily Implied Kyo was kidnapped after the Orochi fight, which was after a fight with 3 people With orochi power, after a riot of the blood Leona if the three treasures team is considered canon (which it is) He would have been heavily exhausted. There's also the Dead or Alive reason why no one kidnaps Ryu instead of Kasumi; because Ryu is Ryu, if they could settle for the best with out losing men by the hundreds they probably would have resorted to that.
  • Another explanation: NESTS are Too Dumb to Live. They cloned a clone of a clone forgodssakes (check Krizalid in 2001) and clones are likely to break down/age faster/get more diseases. Not to mention their CEO relied on a failed Colony Drop. So them not taking the chance to clone more fighters is like that can be explained by their usual stupidity.
• Maximum Impact: What is Nagase supposed to be? Human, robot, clone, what-have-you?
  • She's like K': a regular human who was given powers through genetic manipulation.
    • Actually, she's full of cybernetic implants (check the CG scene where she gets mad ninja skillz by popping a CD into one of her gloves). Though since The King of Fighters has a weird set of definitions, you can probably still call it "genetic manipulation", hey?
    • From what I understand, it's a mixture of both.
    • She's supposed to be a teenage, female version of the game's male lead designer
• Maximum Impact: Where did Duke get that scar on his neck?
  • It's from the surgery that gave him his abilities: he joined Addes to get the money to save his sister by offering to be a guinea pig.
• Magic appears to be real in Maximum Impact, but does that apply to the "real" KOF universe?
  • Yep. Kyo, Iori, Chizuru, and basically anybody connected to Orochi gets their powers from the Sacred Treasures (which is why Chizuru lost her powers after Ash stole the mirror). Anybody who derives their powers from Kyo (like K') is affected when Kyo's own powers are (hence the malfunctioning glove).
• What happened to non-Japanese surnames after 1994? Seriously, take any character added to KOF from '95 on who has a first and last name, and they will be a) Japanese, b) a carryover from a previous game, or c) a central character to the main story. Not even the Koreans get surnames anymore!
  • Too hard for SNK to get decent, non-Japanese names. IE the whole Robert GARCIA thing.
  • Ash Crimson does, although considering how fakey it sounds it doesn't really count.
    • He's kinda a central character to the main story, too.
  • Leona Heidern (debut in '96) gets a surname, which ironically means her predecessor, Heidern (introduced in '94) is only known by his surname.
  • Actually, the Korean fighters from the NESTS saga do have family names. Jhun Hoon's is "Jhun" (which transliterates as "Jeon" in its native Korean form), and May Lee's is "Lee" (her real name is Lee Jingu, and "May" is simply a nickname).
• Re. the "crimson flames"... they're ORANGE, dammit. And they've never been any other color.
  • Related is how they refer to Iori's flames as blue, even though in every game they've been in they're oh so obviously purple. The only times they've been blue is the intro to '95 and a background element in '96.
    • Er... I've never heard of the Yagami flames being anything other than purple ('cause they're cursed, and purple is a cursed color, something like that). But I suppose this is the best we can hope for...
  • Flip-Flop of God. On the 10th Anniversary website, the Rival Team's story for '95 specifically mentions that Iori's flames are of a pale-blue color. Then, on the website for XII, they're said to be purple. The graphics in-game have always been purple. Orochi's flames are also said to be blue, but Orochi Chris' flames are the same color as Iori's (although they were originally going to be black until the devs realized that wouldn't work well against the backdrop of the last few stages in '97). My best guess would be that the flames appear to be purple because red (the flames' true color, although they're colored orange in the games proper) + blue (the taint of Orochi) = purple; that still doesn't explain Chris, though...
  • Twisted even further by the KOF '95 opening, in which Iori's flames are very much blue.
• Iori always calls Kyo by his given name ("KYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!") but Kyo always calls him by his family name ("Ikuze, Yagami"). Why?
  • Kyo doesn't want their rivalry to be that close perhaps, being on First-Name Basis in Japan clearly means you're close to that person or you don't bother about etiquette at all by calling a person whom you barely know by their first name; in turn Iori going by Kyo's first name might be seen as quite offensive taking account Iori's personality. Concluding, Iori think his rivalry with Kyo is more than enough to think they're close, Kyo on the other hand is not that obsessive with this beef, he doesn't think it makes them tied or anything.
  • Another possibility is that in Japan, using another person's first name without any honorifics is either extremely intimate (when they've allowed it), or downright offensive (when they haven't). So to sum up - Kyo is being rough and a little rude, by referring to Iori by his last name and no honorific, and Iori is being hugely offensive by referring to Kyo by his first name and no honorific. Which matches them both pretty well.
• So Ash takes Chizuru's mirror and Iori's magatama easily. But I wonder how he will take Kyo's powers (if he ever do it)? It's said that Kusanagi flames are genetic. Which leads into another question: Would it affect Saisyu (Kyo's dad) or perhaps K' (as he has Kyo's genes)? And how?
  • Given that Saisyu could still use his flames even after bequeathing the sword to Kyo when he became the new head of the clan, I have no idea what would've happened if Ash did steal Kyo's powers.
• King's fighting style is said to be Muay Thai, right? I dunno, it looks like Savate (French kickboxing) to me, since it employs stylish kicking. Kinda funny too, considering both Muay Thai and Savate are variants of kickboxing, and King is French.
  • Probably for the same reason that Andy is an American who learned ninjutsu and koppo, Joe (who is Japanese) is also a nak muay, Blue Mary knows Sambo, the very Japanese Athena knows kung-fu, Kyo employs kempo in his fighting style, etc.; that is to say, SNK probably thought it sounded cool. It's not implausible that King is a Muay Thai practitioner who threw some aspects of Savate into her style.
• Why call it King of Fighters when the tournament is fought in teams?
  • The tournament itself did originate in the Fatal Fury series, where it was fought in one-on-one battles, if remembered correctly. As for why they didn't change it to Kings of Fighters when the team play kicked in? No idea.
• Heavy D! and the rest of the USA Sports team keep on getting their invitations stolen as a Running Gag, correct? Then in that case, how do those who stole the invites actually get into the tournament? Obviously, someone must have specifically written down or cataloged the names and identities of those who were invited, (for one thing, how would they know where to mail the letters to otherwise?) and sent them out; if there are only supposed to be 30 or so fighters present, and a trio (or quartet, in some games,) shows up that is obviously not the USA Sports Team, (or at the least, the leader that gets the letter,) isn't someone going to notice? Aren't there checks at the gate or something? And it's not like you can just forge a letter, considering that most character's who've stolen invites from the team look nothing like the rest of the team. And even if that would work, why wouldn't they just make their own forges in the to begin with, instead of stealing invites in the first place? Or am I just thinking too much into this? :P
  • Given that the American Sports Team is treated like C or even D-listers in-universe (being Butt Monkeys and all), I'd assume that the higher ups hosting those specific tournaments even don't pay that much attention to teams of lesser importance (which would make sense for Rugal in '95 or NESTS in 2000, although it'd probably be a bit OOC for Chizuru and that could probably be handwaved by the fact that the New Faces Team turned out to be the remaining Heavenly Kings of Orochi) or overlook things. Or maybe they're bribed somehow. I dunno. Maybe we are thinking too much into this...
    • What if it is possible that the invites aren't addressed to anyone specifically, but are scattered about the world to be collected by potential teams who then battle each other via a set of sort of preliminary qualifying battles (thus by this logic, the American Sports Team getting their invites taken after being beaten by another team of fighters could considered somewhat legitimized). This would also somewhat have an effect of weeding out teams with members who lack extraordinary abilities (e.g. ki wielding, psychokinesis, hereditarily-acquired flames, Charles Atlas Superpowers, etc.) whence why the generally same set of competitors (Fatal Fury Team, Art of Fighting Team, Psycho soldiers, Team Kusanagi, Team Yagami, etc.) appear at nearly every tournament.
    • This might be the case (at least earlier on in the series), as the Japan Team/Hero Team in '94 was formed through a tournament that Kyo won (with Benimaru as the runner up and Daimon placing third). It's been rather hazy since, with various mentions of individuals being given their invites in person (for example, Mature handing out invites to the Hero Team in their '95 backstory or Shroom and Rimelo handing Kyo one after a brief skirmish prior to XIII) or parties simply signing up for a place in the tournament (which is how Kula forced K' and Maxima into the KOF tourney in XIII). It's also probable that the wealthier contestants like Chizuru or Geese choose to (or at least have the option to) buy their way into the lineup (alternatively, Chizuru has perks from being the tournament organizer/sponsor in her three canonical appearances, '96, '97, and 2003). In XIII, however, NESTS-Style Kyo does wonder how people like Billy make it through the prelims, so maybe this is on a case-by-case basis.
  • KOF All Star offers a good explanation. The invitations are given out to specific people and teams, but if someone's invitation is taken away from them, it means they couldn't protect it in a fight and thus weren't worthy of having it in the first place.
• Why do the KOF matches take place around the world? Wouldn't it save a lot of time and money, (and make more sense,) to have them take place in one location? (Yes, I know that it could possibly make for a lack of variety in stages, but still.)
  • Three main reasons:
    • Maximum viewership and advertising reach. By hosting the event in multiple nations, it makes the citizens of that country more inclined to watch it and by the merchandise (as seen very clearly in the various stage backgrounds). In addition the host country seems to pay a percentage of the costs to host the KOF events: sorta like the Olympics... which in the SNK universe, the KOF is more popular than (even soccer as well).
    • Corporations in the KOF universe are a combination of multi-billion dollar megacorps and super criminal organization (NESTS, Bernstein Cartel, Howard Connection). They aren't hurting for money, and the KOF is just a front for their world domination plans.
    • The prophetic Orochi ritual. Most of match locations are for the summoning (gathering of the "pain and blood" needed), with the final fight location being the place Orochi is to manifest. Given the whole "alignment of the stars" cliche, the locations probably change from year to year, hence not always taking place exactly at the same spots.
• How old are some of the characters in the series anyway? I was checking the SNK Wiki for example, and Mai has three different ages depending on the series; 19 in Fatal Fury 2, to 21 in Fatal Fury 3, to 23 in Real Bout Special, then 20 years old in the first King of Fighters. And since characters apparently don't age in The King of Fighters, it got me curious.
  • The cast, on average, ranges in age from the late teens to early 30s, with many characters sliding towards the lower limit (usually hovering around the early-to-mid 20s). As noted before, KOF operates on the principle of a floating timeline, so all characters who made their debut in '94 have only aged one year and those who appeared in subsequent titles have remained their respective ages throughout the series. The best KOF can do is show the illusion of time, such as Kyo dropping out of high school. Those who were transplanted from other SNK IPs, Fatal Fury in particular as that series did see the characters slowly age from game to game (and by proxy, the Art of Fighting cast is at least a full decade older than them, as AOF precedes Fatal Fury), are typically younger here in KOF.
• I realize that it's non-canon and has nothing to do with the actual series per se, but the very last thing that you see in Neowave's ending is "The chance of war is uncertain..." flashing on the screen behind Geese's desk. What exactly is that supposed to mean, and just what the heck happened to garner the phrase?
  • My guess is that he was about to stir some shit up in South-Town, but having the player character/s turn up in his office and kick the crap out of him caused him to reconsider his plans. Least that's what I got out of it, Geese ain't no stranger to dirty dealings.
• What actually happened during Xanadu's Climax DM? What does he see? What does hit the foe for the final time after that?
• What are the rules of the King of Fighters tournament? Are there any restrictions on what can be used? Obviously the ones that were just a front for evil plans don't care, but some of them are legit and the villainy has nothing to do with the sponsor. Why are they allowed weapons and crazy powers? How do teams of known criminals get to join?
  • Maybe it's to do with the in-universe popularity. KOF got famous during its early years when it was just a front for evil schemes and so the rules were irrelevant; by the time legitimate business-people saw it as an opportunity worth sponsoring, viewers had come to expect wacky shenanigans. Antonov's director in XIV says that 2.5 billion people are watching the tournament that year - that probably wouldn't be the case if there weren't crazy superhero things on display.
• In KOF XIV, Verse has specific win quotes directed at particular characters that are a lot more clear and comphrehensive compared to its generic quotes, which basically involves it shouting its name or something unintelligble. This is due to the fact that its special win quotes are the souls of deceased fighters speaking through Verse: Ash's soul speaks to Iori, Krizalid speaks to K', Orochi speaks to Kyo, Gaidel speaks to Leona, Rugal speaks to Mature, Mizuki speaks Nakoruru, and Igniz speaks to Sylvie Paula Paula. There is one other character that it has such a quote directed at: Shune'i (“Finally...I found you...You...fragment of me”). So that begs the question...did this quote come from another soul inside of Verse? If so, then...who? Or did this quote somehow come from Verse itself? (The quote itself would make total sense coming from Verse seeing that Shun'ei is definitely a "fragment" of it, given the connection between their powers. However, seeing that it can barely form a sentence unless a soul speaks through it seems to hint that its one of Verse's souls speaking rather than Verse itself...unless being near Shun'ei cosmically causes Verse to speak clearly?)
• Verse is established to contain the souls of people and gods who died. Then how come Ash (who was quite clearly erased from history and thus technically never lived in the first place) ended up inside Verse, especially considering that there is no indication that his ancestor Saiki was in it as well?

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