Respect Terry Bogard
as orphaned boys, Terry and his brother Andy were adopted by the fighter Jeff Bogard. Jeff had seen the fighting spirit in both the youngster's eyes and not having children of his own nor successors, he decided to take the two in as his own sons and pass on his fighting skills to them. Jeff was an upstanding and gentle man who was working hard to suppress the despotic rule of the overlords of the city and this brought him under a lot of danger. The three were a happy family with Terry being very close to Jeff and looking up to him as the sole parental figure in his life, though some claim that between the two brothers, Andy was the one who was more attached to Jeff as Terry even as a child tended to keep to himself.
One day when he was 10 years old though, Geese Howard, the corrupt police commissioner of Southtown and the main baddie, decided to eliminate Jeff from the picture as repeated threats didn't stop the upstanding Jeff. There was also another reason why he wanted Jeff killed and that was the fact that Jeff was the only man who had enough skill to be the single threat to Geese in that town. On the fateful day that Jeff was to be murdered, the three started the seemingly ordinary day just like how they did all these years. Terry and Andy started playing around and Andy had knocked Terry's cap off. They started running around and Jeff picks up Terry's cap and dusts it off, knowing his son's fancy for that cap. All of a sudden he sees Geese comes along and fights Jeff. Geese was terribly strong and overwhelms Jeff pretty soon. Terry meanwhile comes back looking for his cap and happens to come by just in time to see Geese kill Jeff in front of his eyes with a devastating heart blow. Geese walks away as Terry watches him leave, hatred burning in him. A dying Jeff puts Terry's cap on his head and with a last smile dies quietly in Terry's arms.
Once Jeff's funeral was over Terry and brother Andy were flung on the dangerous streets of Southtown again. Tung Fu Rue, their father’s sensei tells them to spend the next 10 years of their lives training for vengeance and bring justice to Geese. Terry resorts to train himself in the streets of Southtown while Andy goes to Japan and learns Shiranui Ninja arts [how two 10 year olds made such decisions is beyond me…most probably Tung Fu Rue told them what to do with themselves judging from each brother’s natural ability].
However, there was something that happened to Terry in these ten years: what had started as revenge for his father's murder eventually became a powerful desire to fight strong fighters and test his own skill. As a true fighter, Terry surpassed the ultimately limited "vengeance" approach and began fighting for the sake of fighting. To pit his own skills against mightier foes and improve himself eventually became the number one priority for Terry.
10 years later the two brothers are ready to fight Geese Howard. However Geese is now the owner of South Town and has grown into a devastating warrior as well. In order to keep his fighting nature satisfied, Geese holds the first KoF tournament in KoF/FF timeline but not the first one in AoF/FF time line. Terry and Andy (who also brings a friend, Joe, along with him from Japan) enter the tournament. The two fight brilliantly and at once catch the attention of Geese.
Eventually both brothers face each other and Terry prevails. Terry goes off to face Billy Kane in what was supposed to be the final showdown and kicks his ass too. However, Terry is then called up to face Geese on the top floor of the Geese Tower where Geese anxiously awaits to crush him. Geese is a lot stronger and a lot more experienced than the young Terry. Right from the start Geese smacks Terry all over the place and continues pummeling him. Wounded and thrashed up, Terry keeps getting up from every move Geese does and eventually Geese gets worried as not even his moves are able to put the young Bogard down. They continue their fight and Geese notices that Terry is actually enjoying himself. Terry, as I mentioned before, didn't limit himself as a fighter by letting vengeance, anger and emotions control him: he only cared about the fight and learning from it. Terry had realized that what is important in a fight is not victory or defeat but rather the privilege of learning new things that one doesn't know--and that can only be done by a true fighter. Geese couldn't fathom how Terry was enjoying himself so much, how he seemed to live for the thrill of the fight and slowly Terry starts taking it to Geese.
According to the original Fatal Fury game, Terry and Geese were fighting on the top floor of Geese Tower and Terry eventually kicks him and sends him down to his presumed death. However once Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition came out, we were supposed to believe that they just fought in the top floor of Geese tower and Terry simply beat him...he didn't send him smashing through the window. Since wild ambition is the Fatal Fury retold this ending is now confirmed to be canon. Beating Geese fatally, Terry watches the defeated Geese for a little while in silence. The long nightmare was over. He picks up his cap and walks away leaving behind him the dead Geese. People are shocked at how Geese lost in a fatal match and how a young 20 year man had toppled the despotic ruler of South Town. On that night the Legend of the Hungry Wolf is born, the fighter who kept coming after his opponent no matter what happened, still bearing his fangs and standing his ground no matter what...that was the Hungry Wolf's legend. Terry becomes the new King of Fighters and had come a long way from a homeless boy with revenge in his heart, to a legend.
[note: this is according to the FF-KoF storyline. as the AoF-Ff storyline places Ryo as the FIRST winner of KoF tournaments.]
A year passes by. A German noble named Wolfgang Krauser then holds the KoF tournament to test Terry’s power. Terry is the first one to get the invitation. Once again Terry beats everybody else and meets Krauser in the final. Krauser is a massive German nobleman, almost god like with overwhelming power and a passion for leaving his opponents in a pool of their own blood. The two fight and again Krauser pummels Terry mercilessly. With a clear advantage of size and power, and also experience Krauser pummels Terry but once again Terry shows his ability to take a beating and actually makes the fight rather even with his greater speed and his durability. The two shared a common love for facing powerful opponents and soon enough, though Krauser had dominated in the beginning, Terry gains momentum and starts turning the table.
Eventually Krauser goes for his mightiest move, The Kaiser Wave, as Terry had pushed him far enough. It is not known whether Terry got hit by it or whether he dodged it. Nonetheless, much to Krauser's dismay the fight wasn't over and Terry still keeps coming after him. Eventually as Terry was starting to take it to Krauser, he resorts to using the Kaiser wave for the second time in the hopes of finishing Terry off. This time though Terry was ready and countered it with his power-geyser blast, knocking out Krauser. Krauser was finally defeated and Terry becomes an even bigger legend for winning the King of Fighters tournament two times and that too twice in a row.
[Note: Terry never lost to Krauser on ANY occasion. That is only in the Anime. Anyone who says that Terry lost is actually just trying to mix the anime with the canon story].
Another year passes by and it is the same winning tournaments routine for Terry. Then KoF 94 is announced with the 3-on-3-style combat and Terry again gets the first invitation. Terry was reluctant to enter for a reason that SNK hasn't given to date, however in the end Andy and Joe manage to convince him. Here he faces many old rivals who had entered in teams of three and (as rumor says) in the quarter finals Terry faces Ryo Sakazaki, his old rival from South Town. Again, after a tough battle Terry prevails and defeats the tiger of Kyokugen-ryu. Unsurprisingly, with his fighting caliber Terry and his team makes it to the semi's where he meets Kyo Kusanagi the strong youth who has caught everyone’s attention…even his own. Their teams collide and in the end Terry is left to face Kyo. They fight long and hard but eventually the fight is announced a draw. However in the end Terry's team loses (canon wise, Terry has only lost by time over. So Terry either lost by time out or his fight with Kyo was a draw as Terry was the only guy left in his team while Kyo still has team mate or mates remaining). Realizing that his team is defeated, Terry shows sports man spirit and congratulates the victorious Kyo’s team. Terry and Kyo become good friends later on and have been seen drinking together numerous times. The same shit happens to Terry in KoF ’95 as once again he loses without losing himself. Believe it or not it has been happening since KoF ’94.
