Hwoarang (Hangul: 화랑; Hanja: 花郎 Hwarang; Japanese: ファラン Faran) is a character in the Tekken series who first appeared in Tekken 3 and has returned in all subsequent games. He is the Taekwondo student of Baek Doo San, and entered the third Tournament to get revenge on Ogre for "killing" his master. He has also become Jin Kazama's rival after the two fought to a draw in one of Hwoarang's street matches before the events of Tekken 3.
Biography
Personality
Hwoarang is a hot-headed, impulsive person who enjoys fighting. He is sometimes arrogant and brash as he likes to boast about his skills and strength. He still holds his focus on his opponents to not lose himself in his pride. He is very rebellious and does not like to obey orders, but this changes in regard to his master, Baek, whom he dearly respects. Hwoarang tends to hold a grudge towards his enemies, and he has a strong sense of determination to fight his rivals, especially Jin Kazama.
Outfits
Story
Tekken 3
Manual Version
Hwoarang entered this tournament after Ogre attacked his mentor Baek, who Hwoarang respects greatly. He wanted to redeem himself by taking revenge against Ogre and defeating Jin Kazama, a man Hwoarang failed to beat in a previous fight.
Official Version
A student of Taekwondo who works out at Baek Doo San's dojo, Hwoarang makes a lot of money through dishonest gambling wagers. As part of what's called a fraud team, he and other members pick fights for money. They manipulate the odds by concealing their true strength. Hwoarang escalates the odds against him and makes what appears to be a foolish wager. His opponents soon realize they're the real fools when Hwoarang soundly beats each and every one of them.
One day, members of the Mishima Group came to town, including among them Jin Kazama. Hwoarang talks them into his game and is matched against Jin. Hwoarang embarrassingly can only manage a draw. He hangs his head in disbelief at the first blemish in his perfect career. Sickened at the thought of having to tell his teacher, Baek, the bad news, Hwoarang vows to practice every day to guarantee that it would never happen again. Then, terrible news — Ogre claims Baek as yet another victim.
Hwoarang now has a purpose in life. He will participate in the tournament, beat Jin Kazama and seek revenge against the God of Fighting: Ogre.
Hwoarang ending tekken 3
TK3 Ending
Ending Description, "Rival": Hwoarang is sitting down at an alleyway, holding a trophy (that is a gold version of Heihachi's head). He is ready to toss it away when he notices a wounded Jin being pursued by the Tekken Force. Jin is then cornered by the soldiers. As a distraction, Hwoarang throws the trophy into the area, and then beats up the Tekken Force. When he turns to face Jin, he is already transforming into Devil Jin and leaps out of the warehouse. Hwoarang smiles as he trembles with excitement.
Tekken 4
Back to his homeland of Korea, Hwoarang was drafted into the military and was assigned to a spec-ops unit. Although his success in various missions were highly regarded, his penchant for disobeying rules and orders gave his senior officers more than a few headaches. Hwoarang was felt a strange emptiness within him. He recalled longingly of his days hustling money in street fights and the rush from hand-to-hand combat. And his fight against Jin Kazama. These military could not quell these yearnings.
One day, Hwoarang found out about the announcement of the King of Iron Fist Tournament 4. Hwoarang's blood stirred. He would defeat Jin, Heihachi Mishima, and anyone else who dared to challenge him to claim the Mishima Zaibatsu.
Filled with excitement he hasn't felt in years, Hwoarang slipped away from the military base and headed for the Tournament.
Hwoarang ending tekken 4
TK4 Ending
Ending Description: Hwoarang has finally been able to meet Jin in a parking lot. "You're finally here." he says as Jin approaches. "So, what do you want?" asks an indifferent Jin. Hwoarang replies, "I never got to fight you at the tournament. I'll take you on right here, right now." However, Jin replies back, "There is no reason to fight." Hwoarang doesn't back down, and begins to fight him anyway. After the battle, Hwoarang's Korean commander steps in, as well as other South Korean military officials, ordering Hwoarang to surrender himself for court martial for dereliction of duty. Then Jin steps in, knocking out a few of the guards. Hwoarang joins in, and then the two run away, with Hwoarang concluding that he would let him, so as to even the score at the next tournament.
Tekken 5
Manual Version
The South Korean Army took Hwoarang into custody during the last round of the King of Iron Fist Tournament 4, keeping him from his long-awaited fight with Jin Kazama. Two months later, he was discharged from military service. With nothing holding him back, Hwoarang is free to pursue a confrontation with Jin Kazama.
Official Version
Taekwondo Ace and rival of Jin Kazama, Hwoarang.
Hwoarang was taken into custody by the South Korean military during the last round of The King of Iron Fist Tournament 4, keeping him from his long awaited fight with rival Jin Kazama.
At the Korean embassy, a man claiming to be an ambassador passed him a letter, "I received this letter for you from the military. Take a look!"
Hwoarang could not believe his eyes.
Hwoarang is discharged from the South Korean military a couple of months later. Free from military duty, Hwoarang seizes the opportunity to pursue Jin Kazama and finally battle him face-to-face.
Ending Description:
Tekken 5 Hwoarang Ending
TK5 Ending
Hwoarang is riding a motorcycle at an increased speed. "This sucks!", Hwoarang yells. Soon, he notices something in his way. The figure was Devil Jin. He then attempts to hit the brakes. Before he can successfully stop, Devil Jin lifts his hand and causes Hwoarang's motorcycle to explode. Devil Jin slowly walks towards an injured Hwoarang with the fiery explosion behind him. Hwoarang then yells "You stupid...Come on!" while staggering to stand up and preparing his fighting stance in a weakened state. The scene then ends with Hwoarang making a determined facial expression.
Tekken 6
Tekken 6 Hwoarang Ending
TK6 Ending
In The King of Iron Fist Tournament 5, Hwoarang faced Jin and defeated him. While Jin was lying on the ground, suddenly, he roars paranormally and produces a gale that blows Hwoarang away. From Jin's back, two black wings spread, and Jin stands up in his devil form. Hwoarang is at his wits end. He is not able to fight back, and soon he is knocked unconscious. When Hwoarang wakes up, he finds himself in the hospital. Nearby, he sees Baek standing as a visitor. Hwoarang hears the details from Baek. He ignores his nurse and tries to move from his bed. He falls down in order to beseech Baek to make him stronger. After leaving the hospital, Hwoarang starts training with unprecedented devoutness in order to defeat the "paranormal" Jin. Thus, with the announcement of The King of Iron Fist Tournament 6, he prepares for the tournament.
Ending Description: After defeating Azazel, Hwoarang removes the orb out of his chest and begins to carefully observe it. However, the orb tries to consume Hwoarang's soul, with Hwoarang shouting "I'm...not like... him!" He manages to throw the orb to the floor and stomp on it, destroying it for good. He then flees.
Tekken 7
TEKKEN 7 - Hwoarang Ending & Intro (TEKKEN 7 Character Endings)
Hwoarang sees one man as his rival: Jin Kazama. Jin, CEO of the Mishima Zaibatsu, declared war against the world, and in the ensuing turmoil vanished suddenly, without a trace. Suspecting there is more to Jin's disappearance than meets the eye, Hwoarang vowed to track him down.
With only a shred of reliable information at hand, he headed to the Middle East. After a series of dead leads, Hwoarang heard word that a demon had appeared in a town. Without a second thought, he got on his motorcycle and hammered down there.
When he arrived, the place had been deserted, save for Jin Kazama in his devil form.
Ending Description: As Jin's devil powers subside, Hwoarang yells that it is not worth killing a monster like him. Suddenly, Arabian soldiers arrive and throws a grenade at them. Hwoarang saves Jin from the grenade but gets caught in the explosion himself and was knocked unconcious. As Jin flees with the soldiers in hot pursuit, Hwoarang tries to get up while covering his injured right eye but collapses.
Other Appearances
Tekken Tag Tournament
Hwoarang is a playable character in the non-canonical Tekken Tag Tournament game. He retains his moveset from Tekken 3 with a few new ones to add. While being a non-canonical game in the series, Tekken Tag Tournament is looked at as the refined version of Tekken 3. In this game, like Tekken 3, he continues the grudge with Jin Kazama and Ogre in a certain rebellion his master Baek would not approve of.
Ending Description: He confronts Jin Kazama and complains while Jin stands there with indifference.
Tekken Tag Special Alliance Partners
Street Fighter X Tekken
Hwoarang appeared as a playable character in Street Fighter X Tekken. His tag partner is Steve Fox.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Hwoarang returns as a playable character in Tekken Tag Tournament 2. He retains his moveset from Tekken 6 with a few new ones added. His item move is a heel knife that provides a special K.O animation.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Hwoarang Ending
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Hwoarang's Ending.
Ending Description: Hwoarang challenges Jin to a motorcycle race, and prepares himself. As soon as the light in front of them turns blue, the two immediately move out and waste no time racing. After swerving through various cars and trucks, Jin uses a nearby ramp to get ahead of Hwoarang, with the latter increasing his speed in response. Soon Hwoarang unknowingly passes Lei Wulong, who immediately apprehends Hwoarang for speeding. Later while Hwoarang is trying to convince Lei that Jin was the speeder, the said speeder passes the two with his motorbike at normal speed.
Tekken Revolution
Hwoarang appears in Tekken Revolution as an unlockable character.
Tekken Card Tournament
Hwoarang appears in Tekken Card Tournament as a playable character. His cards focus on "morphing" an opponent's deck's statistics, which weakens the card and removes that card's effect. He can also morph his own into more powerful versions, but without the effect. His drawbacks are his slow draw speed, almost non-existent healing ability, and his tricky to activate power and quick draw boost abilities. He also has no parries, and little to no protective cards, making him a glass cannon in the long run that must focuse on offense. It's also noteworthy that he is one of the more underused characters, and is uncommonly seen in online tournaments and matches. He is safe for all skill levels to use.
Gameplay
Fighting Style
Hwoarang fights using Taekwondo.
Moves
Hwoarang/Tekken Tag Tournament Movelist
Quotes
| Pre-fight Quotes | Win Quotes |
|---|---|
| (Scratches his head) Yeah yeah. Shut up already. |
(Bends knees in front of the opponent) Not too fast, are you? |
| Come on! | That's it? That's all you've got? |
| (Sits on the opponent's back) Don't you have any special moves or something? |
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
| Pre-fight Quotes | Win Quotes |
|---|---|
| One hit and you're done. Bring it! | You're no challenge at all. |
| You're barely enough for a warm-up. |
Tekken 7
| Pre-fight Quotes | Win Quotes |
|---|---|
| I've finally found you!* |
Note: Namco's translation is not the literal translation.
*Spoken only during the Character Episode
Character Relationships
- Baek Doo San - His Taekwondo teacher and master. Baek is the only person in which Hwoarang does not address him with his usual cocky and brash attitude and respects him greatly.
- Jin Kazama - Hwoarang is constantly attempting to pick a fight with Jin and regards him as his rival. Jin does not return this regard and usually sees him as an interference. Hwoarang managed to defeat Jin in Tekken 5, but Jin transformed into his devil form and nearly killed Hwoarang. They both fought each other again in Tekken 7 while Jin is in his devil form. Hwoarang also saved Jin from a grenade that came from one of the Arab soilders but ended up losing his eye as a result while Jin escapes.
- Eddy Gordo - His acquaintance.
- Ling Xiaoyu - Friendly acquaintance.
- Lili - He teamed up with her in a battle against Jin in the Tekken 6 E3 2006 Trailer. [3]
- Devil Jin - Hwoarang was defeated by him at the end of Tekken 5, which resulted in him being hospitalized. Manage to defeat him in Tekken 7 to snap Jin back to normal and saved him from the soldiers who after Jin at cost of Hwoarang's right eye caused by one of the soldiers' grenade.
- Ogre - Hwoarang entered the Third Tournament to get revenge on Ogre for attacking Baek.
- Miguel Caballero Rojo - His ally in the Resistance in the Scenario Campaign mode.
- Steve Fox - Steve is Hwoarang's friendly and occasional rival. Steve is also his partner in Street Fighter X Tekken.
Trivia
General:
- He bears the nickname, Blood Talon, and the pseudonym 'BoB' (not to be confused with Robert Richards, the character introduced in Tekken 6, who is more commonly called Bob), allegedly because western gamers have difficulty in writing his name correctly. Another theory is that it is derived from the pre-release Tekken 3 art by Namco where he was seen on a motorcycle, but without any name given, he became known simply as Boy on Bike.
- He (along with Jin and Steve) is currently the youngest human male character in the series.
- Hwoarang can be seen practicing Hwarang-Tul of I.T.F. Taekwondo in Tekken 3's demonstration video[4], and many of his win animations in the series are taken from various Tul (Korean for Kata) from the I.T.F. Taekwondo style.
- Hwoarang's movements are motion captured. The actor is Hwang Su Il, a Taekwondo I.T.F. black belt of Japan.
- A lot of fans, especially those of European and American origin have trouble pronouncing Hwoarang's name; canonically, it is pronounced "Hwa-rang", common mispronunciations include "Whore-ang" and "How-rang". Somehow, his name ended up consistently mispronounced as the latter in Street Fighter x Tekken.
- Hwoarang's name may be based on the Hwarang, a group of elite male youth in Silla, an ancient Korean Kingdom.
- Hwoarang has the most win animations in Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection and Tekken 6, with a total of ten win animations each. However, one of his win animations would only show up after defeating Jinpachi Mishima in Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, which is (obviously) not the case in Tekken 6.
- Hwoarang is the only person to win an official tournament match against Jin Kazama, thus make him one of the most "powerful" fighters in the series.
- So far, all his prologues and epilogues involves Jin Kazama. In Tekken 5 and Tekken 6, Hwoarang's endings involves Devil Jin.
- Yun-Seong from the Soul Calibur series has some of Hwoarang's kicking moves.
- Hwoarang's bosses in the Tekken Force side game are (in order of appearance) Eddy Gordo, Forest Law, Jin Kazama, and Heihachi Mishima.
- In the rare "Tekken 3 Symphony Orchestra" calendar by Namco, Hwoarang is seen rollerblading while wearing formal black clothes and carrying a cello in its case.
- Hwoarang's Stage 7 sub-boss is Ogre.
- Hwoarang has short and "styled" hair for the first and last time.
- Hwoarang is seen out of his two stereotypical costumes (biker and Taekwondo outfits) for the first time.
- In his ending, Hwoarang speaks English when he confronts Jin for a fight, with Jin responding in English as well. This is the only time either speak English (with the exception of the non-canonical Street Fighter X Tekken game); the rest of the time, they only speak Korean and Japanese, respectively.
Tekken 5 and Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection:
- In the opening of Tekken 5, both Steve Fox and Hwoarang can be seen fighting each other, they were later announced as partners for Street Fighter X Tekken.
- The Heihachi trophy that was seen in Hwoarang's Tekken 3 ending is available as a customizable item for him in Tekken 5.
- Hwoarang's sub-bosses are Baek Doo San and Jin Kazama.
- Hwoarang is one of the few characters in Tekken 5 that do not fight Devil Jin in the 8th battle of Story Mode.
Tekken 6 and Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion:
- Hwoarang's name is pronounced incorrectly as "How-rang" instead of "Hwa-rang".
- Hwoarang's "Item Move" feature is a soccer ball, which Hwoarang kicks at his opponent. Another shows him hitting the opponent with a baseball bat.
- If Hwoarang uses his baseball bat item move on Alisa, instead of being swatted away, she'll collapse with her head knocking off.
- In the Scenario Campaign mode of Tekken 6, Hwoarang is a boss at the Industial Highway 357 stage.
- Hwoarang's Stage 1 and Stage 2 opponents in Scenario Campaign's "Arena" mode are Steve Fox and Baek Doo San.
- In one of his win animations he can be seen performing the first three moves from the 'Won-Hyo' tul.
- His Talon Sky Rocket deals 27 damage instead of 25.
- Hwoarang's Super Art is the "Heel Explosion Combo" where he kicks and heel drop to his opponent and goes in mid air for a devastating heel kick.
- He shares the same quotes with his rival Jin during the first attack on his opponents and misses one of his throws and his quotes are "Just getting stand still...?" and "What?!" In Jin's quote from his first attack, however is "Just getting stand there...?"
- Being in the game created by Capcom, Hwoarang does not speak Korean in this game, instead he speaks English or Japanese.
- Hwoarang makes nicknames to most male characters as "Geezer". Although the slang word of "geezer" means "dude" in the United Kingdom while in the United States it means old and cranky. Oddly enough his official tag partner, Steve is from United Kingdom.
- Hwoarang is one of the three Tekken characters that use their Player 2 outfit instead of their Player 1 outfit. The other two are Asuka and Lili.
- Hwoarang has a special tag throw with Baek and Steve where Hwoarang performs a "Human Cannonball" to push his opponent to Baek who promptly responds by kicking the opponent or Steve who will then jab the opponent then both of them attack the opponent simultaneously.
- He has special win pose with Baek Doo San and Devil Jin and two special win poses with Jin Kazama.
- His Taekwondo uniform has been incorrectly named as "Karate uniform" in the customization mode.
- He can be customized to resemble manga character Naruto Uzumaki in his Shippuden attire.
- Hwoarang's ending is similar to Paul's Tekken 3 ending, such as both being caught speeding.
Tekken 7 and Tekken 7: Fated Retribution:
- One of Hwoarang's customized costumes is Baek's suit.[5]
- Hwoarang has a new pre-fight animation where he sits on his motorcycle as he smirks.
- Hwoarang's Rage Art requires him to be in his Flamingo Stance in order to execute it. It is safe on block as a result.
- Hwoarang received Baek's Flamingo Rocket and Double Claymore, which the latter can also be executed during Left Flamingo.
- Hwoarang regained his Right Nose Bleeder in this game. It was removed from Tekken 6 to make way for Middle Claymore, which got its command changed to d/f+4 in Tekken 7.
- The notation for Power Blast in this game was changed from f+1+4 to 1+4 (during Left Flamingo).
- In Fated Retribution, Hwoarang is the only character to have more than 1 Rage Drives.
- He, King, Bryan, & Steve are the only characters who are not wearing their new main outfits in their Character Episodes.
- He can be customized to resemble Kanji Tatsumi from Persona 4.
Other:
- Even though Hwoarang does not appear in Tekken: The Motion Picture, his picture can be seen near the beginning of the movie along with some other fighters' pictures.
- Hwoarang's rivals in Tekken Card Challenge are Jin Kazama, Forest Law and Heihachi Mishima.
- In Tekken: Blood Vengeance, Hwoarang's dossier is briefly seen when Anna Williams opens a file containing dossiers of other fighters.
- A character named "Iron Surfer", played by Stephen Fung, in the Hong Kong Martial Arts movie "The Avenging Fist" bears a strong resemblance to Hwoarang, and the movie itself is known for its many allusions to Tekken. The resemblance to Hwoarang is both in looks and fighting style.