Vega

Vega
Series	Street Fighter
First Appearance	Street Fighter II (1994)
Species	Human

Vega is a character from the Street Fighter series, first appearing as a non-playable boss in Street Fighter II before becoming playable in the expanded version, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition. He is a claw-wielding, narcissistic, Spanish ninja, obsessed with beauty and personal bodyguard to M. Bison.

Vega is one of the few Street Fighter characters with a different name in Japan due to worries about rights with the character known as Balrog in the West. In Japan, the names of the bosses were swapped so that Vega is the name of M. Bison, Balrog is the name of Vega and M. Bison is the name of Balrog. Due to this, the international community tends to refer to him as Claw over regional differences.

Personality

Vega is vain, overconfident, and highly convinced of his own abilities, almost to the point of megalomania. He is also incredibly sadistic and takes great pleasure in seeing the ugly murdered. He often has a stone-cold demeanor, and does not show a wide range of emotions. His narcissism and disdain for anything lacking elegance causes him to clash with fellow Shadaloo members

Vega's vanity is also demonstrated in how he uses his mask. He wears the mask not to conceal his identity, but to protect his face from scarring or bruising during battle, as he believes that any injury to it will make him look “ugly”. Vega often removes it after fights during his win poses, and some of his endings have him with his face exposed. Additionally, many characters are able to recognize Vega even if they never see him without his mask.

Vega has been described as intelligent and sophisticated as well as other gentlemanly traits, likely because of his noble background. He is also attracted to and impressed by the beauty and strength of young women, notably Chun-Li and Cammy. But at the same time, he seems to derive pleasure from causing pain and despair to them, taunting them in victory. With men, on the other hand, Vega tends to completely look down upon them and is seen constantly scolding their fighting abilities and "ugliness". Additionally, some of Vega's win quotes against other ninja fighters suggest that he judges them based on their skills and abilities with the art of ninjutsu on top of their appearance.