Following mixed reactions to Alex’s developing story in Street Fighter 6, game director Takayuki Nakayama has announced that the developers are planning to “revise certain text passages that may have been misleading” in a future patch. In addition, a short story featuring Tom (Alex’s first cousin once removed, adoptive father, and father-in-law rolled into one) was released to shed some more light on the two’s unique relationship.
The “confusion” that Nakayama refers to in his X post largely has to do with Alex’s marriage to his second cousin and adoptive sister Patricia. While the Japanese text describes Tom as Alex’s “sodate no oya” (an ambiguous term that could refer to a parent-child adoption, “a person who raises a child,” or “a person who has devoted themselves to nurturing someone (such as in a sport),” the English text is more explicit in saying that the former is the latter’s adoptive father. Regardless of the translation, both texts explicitly state that Tom is Alex’s first cousin once removed, making Patricia (Tom’s biological daughter) Alex’s second cousin.
Though marrying your second cousin is technically legal in the US (where Alex and Patricia come from), it is often frowned upon by society, and did not sit right with a portion of the English-speaking Street Fighter fandom. This may not have been the intention of the developers, but it has nevertheless caused some confusion within the fanbase (some Japanese fans suspect that the decision to make Tom and Alex blood-related was to justify the former taking in Alex at a young age after the latter’s parents died).
The new short story “A Toast Between Fathers” confirms Tom’s status as Alex’s father-in-law, as it takes place just after Alex and Patricia’s wedding. The biggest takeaway from the story is that Tom is a divorcé, having separated from Patricia’s biological mother years before (this does not nullify Tom’s blood relationship to Alex, as the former is the biological cousin of Alex’s mother). Given the growing rift between Tom and Patricia after the divorce, Alex was the one who saved Patricia after she got herself into some trouble with the wrong people. Though the two adoptive siblings grew apart, the rescue seemed to kindle a desire to repair their relationship and turn it into something romantic.
Alex’s narrative is integrated quite heavily in Street Fighter 6, with his World Tour section focusing on his backstory and his Arcade mode ending with a night at home with Patricia and their unborn daughter. Some of the victory screens in standard fights even mention Alex and Patricia’s relationship, provided he is one of the characters participating. While Capcom has yet to unveil how they’re going to retcon Alex, it seems that developers have their work cut out for them.
