Ken Masters

"Attack me if you dare, I will crush you!"

- Ken Ken Masters (ケン・マスターズKen Masutāzu? ) , originally spelled in Japanese as 拳(Ken), is a video game character created by Capcom. As a main character, he has appeared in all of the Street Fighter games along with his best friend and rival, Ryu. Like Ryu, Ken's goal is to test his power against many different fighters and strive to become stronger.

Story
After winning a famous martial arts tournament, Ken returns to Japan to tell Master Gouken about his victory. However, when he arrives at the dojo, he witnesses Gouken's death at the hands of Akuma. Enraged, he attacks Akuma but is easily defeated. Akuma then vanishes from the dojo grounds. Afterwards, Ken searches for Ryu to inform him on what had happened to their master. Upon meeting Ryu, they catch and decide to have a match like old times. Upon winning, Ken realizes Ryu wasn't acting like himself (which he later learns is due to his recent fight with Sagat). Ryu tells Ken that deep within him, there is a burning rage... a power trying to overcome him. To cheer him up, Ken gives Ryu his red headband and tells him to stay focused.

Ken then receives an invitation to the second Street Fighter tournament, but due to spending so much time with his girlfriend, Eliza, he has been slacking on his training. However, Ryu personally challenges Ken, which inspires him to enter the tournament and continue his training. After the events of Street Fighter 2, Ken marries Eliza, something he vowed only to do after winning a decisive victory against Ryu (it is believed that Ken did defeat Ryu during the events of SF2). At one point during the tournament, M. Bisontakes control of Ken after inducing a large amount of Psycho Power into him, and "Sennou Ken" becomes Ken's alter-ego for a short period of time. Ken becomes a killing machine for a brief while, and attacks several of his friends. After he recovers, Ken ends up helping the other fighters defeat Bison. In the SNK VS Capcom Chaos storyline, Ken absorbs the Orochi power and becomes Violent Ken.

During the events of Street Fighter IV, Eliza is a few months pregnant and Ken doesn't want to leave her to enter the tournament. Eliza senses his inner conflict and assures him that she'll be fine, and the baby isn't due for quite a while, persuading him to enter the tournament. After he enters, Ken encounters a weird guy named Rufus, who claims to be his rival. After the tournament, Ken discovers that Gouken did not die in the battle with Akuma. Many years later, Ken decides to enter the third Street Fighter tournament. During this time, a Brazilian teenager named Sean consistently begs Ken to train him, and Ken reluctantly accepts. Ken also trains his son Mel, who is now old enough to learn martial arts.'