Ask or Dare: Cartoon & Anime All-Stars Friend Logs!

Episode 17: Marshall Law

Hello everyone and welcome to the 17th Episode of Ask or Dare: Cartoon & Anime All-Stars Friend Logs! Today's episode is all about the Legendary Dragon, and the last Tekken character to make an appearance beyond the Tekken crossover, Marshall Law!

Origins

Law is one of the series staples of Tekken, making his debut in the 1st ever Tekken game, and appearing in almost every game in the series, with the exception of Tekken 3. Being Bandai Namco's Bruce Lee tribute, Law fights like one would expect from a clone of his caliber. Like many other Tekken characters, he hails from the United States. In Tekken 4, he was voiced by Julian MacFarlane (No relation to Seth MacFarlane). In T5, he was voiced by Robert Clotworthy. Nowadays, he's voiced by David Vincent, who you may know as Grimmjow from Bleach, Gilgamesh from Fate/Zero, Robin from the Fire Emblem series, and Richter Belmont from Castlevania.

General Background

Marshall Law is a renowned Martial Artist, who has his own dojo and even restaurant (More about those later). He's also Paul's best friend, and is one of the few DECENT fathers in Tekken with his son, Forest.

Story in Tekken 1

Having the dream of opening up his own dojo while working in his restaurant, Law enters the King of Iron Fist Tournament in hopes of winning the prize money and becoming famous.

Story in Tekken 2

While he didn't win the tournament, Law still managed to get his dojo up and running. However, the dojo was attacked with the students severely injured by someone named Baek Doo San, a Taekwondo master who trained Hwoarang, Jin Kazama's rival. His motive? Baek was blackmailed into doing so by a competitor of Law's who knew the truth about the death of Baek's father (In which Baek killed him by accident). Enraged by his dojo being shamed and his students being on the verge of death, Law enters the King of Iron Fist Tournament to avenge them. Which he did.

Story in Tekken 3

In Tekken 3, Marshall is replaced by his son, Forest, who entered the tournament due to peer pressure from Paul, who didn't know about the restrictions about not fighting outside of the dojo, something Marshall didn't take to well.

Story in Tekken 4

At this point in the story, Law was a successful business man with his dojo and his restaurant, Marshall China. But after losing a franchise war against a rival chain, he had no choice but to declare bankruptcy, making him fall into crippling depression, unable to cope with the loss. But all of that changed when his received a notice for the 4th King of Iron Fist Tournament at his doorstep. With his fighting spirit restored and several months of intense training, Law makes his return to the tournament, ready to take back everything he lost.

Story in Tekken 5

Law was once again unsuccessful in winning the tournament and returning to the restaurant business. Not only that, but he was so dirt poor that he didn't even have enough money to afford a flight back to the United States, so he was stuck working at a Chinese restaurant as a dishwasher in Japan. Things wouldn't get better for him as he received a call from his wife a month after the tournament. After taking Paul's motorcycle for a joyride, Forest ended up having a car accident. With both his son's medical bills and motorcycle damage to pay for, Law once again enters the tournament. In his ending, after returning to America, Law talks with a lawyer to get debt free, which ends up landing him back to being broke... Suddenly, Paul comes in, riding an unstable bicycle which ends up breaking. Paul then hands him the bill for his broken motorcycle which comes up to a total of $34,500, along with his name being signed on it, much to Marshall's dismay. Back to being penniless, Marshall then attacks Paul and runs away, leaving the papers on the trail.

Story in Tekken 6

Once again, Law loses the tournament, and things only got worse for him as his illegal employment in Japan was spotted, leading him to be deported back to the USA. The Medical bill deadline was approaching, and Law needed money. FAST. Then, his old pal, Paul calls him up and tells him about the announcement for the 6th King of Iron Fist Tournament, and decided that it would be a good idea to team up. But Law thought they would need a 3rd fighter for their plan, so they decide to seek out none other than Steve Fox, and convinced him to join them. Likely taking place after Paul's ending, the 3 men celebrate their victory with a bunch of huge cases of cash. Marshall, plotting to take home all the cash for himself, sneaks laxatives into pizza he plans to serve his friends... Once the pizza was ready, both men take a bite out of a single slice, and both need to take a huge dump. With the opportunity to make a mad dash with all the money now given, Marshall runs off with all cash. How he can carry ALL of that with ease is beyond me, but regardless, real dick move there, dude.

Story in Tekken 7

Too busy STILL paying off his son's medical bills, Law hadn't realized how many of his students had ditched his dojo until it was too late. With now both the medical bills still unpaid and his dojo losing students, Law was in deeper s**t. Still needing to pay his heaping debt mountain, he decides to find a worthy fighter to take care of the dojo. Paul was an immediate nope after he suggested himself, so Law decides to advertise the whole thing, and if anyone could beat him in combat, they could look over his dojo. Several challengers would try their luck, but none were worthy of taking care of the dojo. One day, Law had heard a rumor about a Chinese martial artist aiming to be the next God Fist master. The opportunity being too good to pass up, the dynamic duo set their sights to China, Law's ancestral homeland and face this fighter. Who was this fighter you ask? Feng Wei, the same man who put Asuka's father in the hospital. Despite Feng's incredible skill and raw power, Law and Paul defeat him, but not before they realize just how much of a danger Feng truly is and make a run for it, which is a good move since the dude isn't exactly the most trustworthy guy.

Contributions to the Series

The cast 1st met Law as one of the recruits when they were brought to Violet Systems HQ. Law was promised a surefire payday that would get his debt repayed in exchange for joining the resistance, which he was given. Afterwards, the last time we saw him was when we went bowling.

Relationships with Other Characters

Paul Phoenix & Steve Fox: His friends.

Lee Chaolan: Lee trained with both Law and Paul.

Lili de Rochefort: Lili was who made Law hate rich people. Remember when I mentioned that Lili got her invitation from a fighter she fought? That was Forest... And may or may not be the real reason why he's been hospitalized...

And that concludes today's episode of Ask or Dare: Cartoon & Anime All-Stars Friend Logs! Next episode is about Josie Rizal! Until next time, thanks for reading and I'll see you all next time!