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Adaptation Displacement: Terry's Cartwright Curse in the anime trilogy, borders highly on Never Live It Down; when people think of his love life they often think of his dead love interests in the anime a lot more than Blue Mary, his perfectly alive one in the games. (Though the fact that SNK has been doing little Ship Tease between them, if any, in the The King of Fighters doesn't help.) While Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture was not a bad movie, things like this are one of the reasons why it's a shame that Fatal Fury 3 didn't get a animated adaptation. Of course, if Blue Mary was ever in a 90's Fatal Fury anime, it would get folks to wonder if that would've averted this once and for all or made thingsa whole lot worse.
Complete Monster: White from Real Bout Dominated Mind. When you, a one-shot villain, make Geese and Yamazaki look like saints in comparison, you know that your evil quota is a cloth cut above the rest.
Duck King, emphasis on both "crazy" and "awesome." Between the fact that he turned breakdancing into a physics-defying martial arts and the family of ducks living in his hair, Duck King was this trope from the start. Also of note... I AM DUCK KING! QWACK! QWACK! QWACK! QWACK! QWACK! QWACK!
Cult Classic: Garou: Mark of the Wolves. The fact that it's widely considered to be not only the Magnum Opus for this series, but SNK itself should tell you something.
Billy Kane. A lesser example, but a darkhorse nonetheless.
To call Mai Shiranui this would be the understatement of the year. When excluded from the arcade ports of KOF XI and entirely from XII... you'd be better off not knowing about it.
Kim Kaphwan, who debuted alongside Mai in 2. Fatal Fury 3 gives us Blue Mary and Yamazaki.
Rick Strowd. Some haven't taken kindly to the fact that Vanessa started cribbing off of him (thus lowering his chances of getting into KOF himself), especially when she used his Gaia's Breath P-Power in 2002. Ironically, Vanessa went on to become one of KOF's many darkhorses.
At least half of the Garou cast. Rock Howard (who, as The Hero of Garou, is more of a meta example for the SNK fandom), Bonne Jenet, Gato, Hotaru, Tizoc, Khushnood Butt... In fact, the only thing that's stopping Rock from crossing into the main KOF titles? SNK Playmore is "saving" him for the sequel to Garou. Now how long has that title been a pipe dream? Just be thankful that he's made it into Capcom vs. SNK 2, the Maximum Impact titles, and Neo Geo Battle Coliseum. Likewise, interviews say that Butt is one of the most requested characters for the KOF lineup.
From The Movie we have Jamin. A lot of fans want to see him in an actual SNK fighter as a Canon Immigrant.
Good Bad Bugs: Aerial Canceling, where you could cancel a jump into a special move, was already known to the developers but left in the game because an SNK higher-up thought it made the fighting look more frantic. This technique would be tweaked a bit and appear as part of the mechanics in The King of Fighters.
He's Just Hiding: Kim was defeated by Freeman before the events of Garou and apparently goes missing. He shows up to berate his son Dong Hwan under certain circumstances, though.
Love to Hate: Geese has done terrible things over the course of the series but is beloved by the fandom (not unlike Rugal), cementing him as one of the premier SNK villains (and a more notable fighting game villain from the 90s in general). Geese can do no wrong because the fandom worships the ground he walks on. It doesn't hurt that he's charismatic, has a sense of style, and despite his wicked deeds, never quite crosses theMoral Event Horizon into Complete Monster territory. Oh, and he's an uncontested Badass.
Memetic Molester: Hotaru Futaba, thanks to one of her supers, Flying Queen of Chaos, wherein she kicks you upward, rides you to the ground and.... uh... seems to press your chest, draining your health and chi. Of course the animation makes it more look like she's RAPING you. Now it's hard to look at that move as anything OTHER than full bore molestation. Not to mention Hotaru's animations after the chi burst resemble something akin to post-orgasm bliss.
Memetic Outfit: The famous red hat, red jacket, white undershirt, and blue jeans. Terry changes wardrobe largely in Mark of the Wolves, wherein he gives the hat to Rock and swaps out the sleeveless red coat for a brown, sleeved one.
Moe: Hotaru. Dear God, Hotaru. It doesn't hurt that she's also theWoobie of the series.
The "OOOOOOOUUUUUUAAAAAAAAGH" sound Andy makes when you hit him. Not so prevalent here but it cropped up quite a bit in early KOF titles. It got ridiculous in '99 onward where for no apparent reason they made it his KO cry. You will hear this especially in 2002 and Unlimited Match, where he groans this practically every time you hit him.
Uncanny Valley: Overlaps with Red Eyes, Take Warning. After you beat White, Dominated Mind shows a cutscene of him falling to the ground in defeat. He tries to get up, and when he opens his eyes, they're nothing but blank red spheres. Brrr...
Viewer Gender Confusion: Jin Chonshu. He looks like a little girl, but is actually male. To make it worse, in some of the games, he seems to be wearing lipstick and Guyliner...
Woolseyism: Krauser's line "Blood is thick, but syrup is thicker. Think about it."