First of all sorry If this was talked about already but I couldn't find anything on the forums. So I just found this thread on reddit and immediately thought about the bombcast magic debate.

I'm still not sure what to believe but I know for sure its not just a regular ball of fire.

Reddit Thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1w09qb/ive_been_playing_street_fighter_ii_since_1992_all/

'Ryu': The Hands of Fire.

So he's a magician right?

til this wasn't a known quantity

He's a monk using Chi energy. Done.

This puts a real wrench in the wizard/conjurer/sorcerer/monk/energy within/energy without debate.

But whats the difference between inner chi and inner magic?

@crusader8463 said:

Of course he is. As those images irrefutably prove, the hadoken is his energy projected.

Like this:

East-Asian episteme versus Indo-European episteme.

I mean, the only difference between a chi using monk and a magic using wizard is the colloquialism isn't it?

Whatever you want to call it, inner chi or spirit or whatever is basically magic with another name. Anything that is not achievable in real life falls into magic as far as I'm concerned - and let's not get into the "sonic boom is technically possible maaaan" cause a regular human being can't do it.

That would be my guess as well.

He's a magic warrior monk. Normal warrior monks can't throw out energy balls. It has nothing to do with the source of the power, there are wizards who draw upon themselves to power their magic.

The real question, I think, is is Captain Falcon a Warrior Monk?

Hes a made up video game character with made up powers. I win.

Well its not something that is inherent to every individual in the Street fighter universe, I'm going with Wizard. Hell there are usually words associated with martial arts training which further supports the wizard theory.

He can't be a Wizard, they have low Strength.

Not sure how I never noticed that before. Weird.

Psh. Old ass study, ya mean.

You wanna know the difference between chi and magic? Simple Chi is a projection of your inner energy where as magic is tapping into and manipulating an external force.

The Hadouken pretty clearly isn't a 'fireball', but what about the charged, red Hadouken that does set people on fire when it hits? I feel like this might be a case of multiclassing.

Ryu is manipulating the energies within him and focusing that force through the palms of his fist. The Hadouken results in a outward expression of that force that travels the screen and knocks down the opponent on contact. The actual "fireball" isn't a fireball at all; it's a visual representation of Ryu's ability to manipulate his Chi and weaponize it.

@make_me_mad: Totally, Ryu is a monk/wizard. It explains everything.

Dunno .. but he's dead. R.I.P.

THE PLOT THICKENS!

It's psionic power, it's an extension of his body created using mind power. Maybe it's a combination of chi to create fire and mind power to carry the fire using his mind hands.

Truly this is the 'tastes great/less filling' debate for a new age

It kind of confused me as to why on the bombcast, they all seemed so hung upon the D&D definitions, I'm pretty sure wizards and sorcerers have been around for centuries before board games.

That's how I view it.

I'm surprised people didn't know this.

The fact that we can see his fists in the flames only adds credence to the notion that the fireball is just a visualization of Ryu's energy travelling across the screen, not a literal fireball. The cool blue colour represents his energy, just like Ken's raging red energy represents his.

On the other hand (SEE WHAT I DID THERE) maybe he's just such a good sorcerer that he can make the flames into whatever shape he wants.

I still feel like we're having two separate debates here: The people who are debating which kind of power Ryu has based on information presented in the game; and the people who are trying to argue that anything that isn't real is magic and therefore Ryu is a wizard because it's all the same bullshit.

The second group is dumb, because by their definition every video game ever made is about wizards.

Ryu's EX hadouken sets opponents on fire though.

This is kind of pointless, but still fun argument (Internet, yeah...).

To me, Ryu is closer to a monk than to a wizard. The difference is that Monks reach such a level of control over their bodies and its inner energy through physical training and conditioning (their preferred stats are dexterity and strength). Wizards reach a level of control over the energy and forces of the universe through mental training and lots of study (their preferred stat is intelligence). Monks are jedis, Wizards are scholars.

That is why wizards are often weaklings (because they spent most of their lives studying books), while warrior monks (particularly the shotokan variety in SF) are physically (and personality-wise) strong but don't necessarily shine in the intelligence department (which explains Dan).

I like this explanation.

Western magic vs. Eastern magic. Call it chi or whatever: If it's not physics it's magic. That's, like, the definition of magic.

ugh, I feel like I'm 10 again and hanging out with people who want to suck out of the FUN out of the the Last Dragon awesome ending fight.