Baek Doo San

"왜 태권도를 먹으려 고하지 않니?"

- Baek after defeating someone

Baek Doo San (English: White-headed Mountain) is a supporting anti-villain character in the Tekken series. Baek first appeared in Tekken 2, and he has returned for most titles with the exception of Tekken 3, Tekken 4, and Tekken 7 due to his lower popularity in contrast to his student, Hwoarang.

In Tekken 2, Baek appeared as Marshall's Law sub-boss. The reason for their rivalry was because Baek went on a rampage to destroy Law, his students and his dojo for opposing his fighting style. But when confronted by Law himself, Baek cowered away like a scardy cat that he is.

Biography
Doo San is a master of Taekwondo and the son of a former Taekwondo champion.

During his childhood, his father received a career-ending injury. Devastated, his father turned to alcohol when coming out of the hospital and became a heavy-drinker, which ultimately led to his incarceration.

Plunged into a life of poverty, Baek's family was forced to deal with very hard times, and just when it looked like that things couldn't get worse, his mother disappeared, leaving him and his two siblings alone.

This frightening and Great Depression-like experience left him traumatised, driving him crazy every time he saw there was no food in the fridge and that was seen by his Asian eyes lots of times. When the police found him and his bro and sis, they took them into the military's care and raised them, especially Doo San.

Years later, he found himself walking the same path of his late father, a Taekwondo master and champion, but unfortunately, a person not being any sort of a champion and coming from a line of poverty.

Out of pure madness he was thought at the military bases and for seeing other martial arts such as Kung Fu worth less than the "almighty Taekwondo", Doo attacked the martial arts dojo belonging to Marshall's Law, a man whose vengeance couldn't be stopped after what Baek had done. A confrontation between Baek and Marshall was indeed inevitable and they both decided to settle their rivalry in the King of Iron Fist Tournament 2. Unfortunately for San, Law defeated him.

According to some vague rumours concerning the news, Baek was presumed dead after encountering Ogre on Earth after he came from Orinion. One of his closest students, Hwoarang, entered the King of Iron Fist Tournament 3.

However, according to much fresher rumours concerning Tekken 5, San's encounter with Ogre had left him in a mere coma; not dead as initially presumed. He woke up over a year later; after his student Hwoarang had already competed in the King of Iron Fist Tournament 4 but had lost. Baek then accepted to be taken back to his military bases to teach the young soldiers some Tae Kwon Do. Hwoarang also was drafted into the South Korean army, but ran away to compete in the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5, the last tournament. When he was arrested by the South Korean army for refusing his draft, he was informed that Baek was still alive. Baek also decided to enter the King of the Iron Fist Tournament 5 as did his student after he was brought out of jail.

After losing in the tournament along with his master, Hwoarang was about to fight three Japanese thugs back on the streets of South Korea, but Baek immediately calls out his student after seeing him doing street hustling and he angrily disapproves his actions with a finger denial as one of the thugs knock Hwoarang down with a single kick. The three thugs soon confront the o' Baek, but Baek instead decides to take the thugs' side in order to see if Hwoarang alone is indeed strong enough to stop them. Attempting to stop them but to no use as the thugs' power was overwhelming, a defeated Hwoarang shrugs as Baek strictly drags him by his neck while walking away all the while the Chinese thugs laughed at Hwoarang.

It took Hwoarang three days to regain consciousness after being beaten some more by Scooby himself at his dojo. Hwoarang himself knew the deal: not only does he need to recover, but he has to strengthen himself even further. Baek sensed his strong will and his unprecedented modesty, and hence he decided to teach him everything he knows surplus some military tactics, something he refused to do before. Baek and Hwoarang endeavoured to practice intensely this time. Unfortunately however, Baek could not test Hwoarang's skills out in a KoTIF tournament since it has been cancelled indefinitely.

Quotes
"준비 되었나요?"

- Baek before a fight

"돌아가서 연습하십시오."

- Baek to Hwoarang all the time

"이것은 좋은 경기였습니다."

- Baek after a presumed good match

"다른 사람들을 물리 칠 걱정을하기 전에 나를 물리 칠 수 있습니다. 어서!"

- Baek to Hwoarang

"당신은 아직 전사가되어야합니다."

- Doo San to Hwoarang again

"내가 마샬과 싸운다면 그는 나를 찢어 버릴 것이고, 나를 무너 뜨릴 것이다."

- Doo San explains why he fled from Marshall's

"더 이상, 제자."

- Baek warning Hwoarang

"나는 일요일에 훈련을 갖고있다. 우리와 함께 할 수 있을까요?"

- Baek after defeating a worthy opponents

Powers and abilities
Despite being generally clunkier, clumsier and far less aggressive than Hwoarang or other characters for that matter, Baek is still considered a very agile and rather fast-paced character.

Baek's moveset is much more balanced than Hwoarang's, offering somewhat less efficient but still devastating kicks, decent punching capabilities unlike Hwo's aggressive and over-the-top ones and has a few good counters as well. But remember, only a few. Baek is best-suited for a balanced style that relies on the long reach and raw power of his kicks mixed with a few quick punches here and there to keep up the pressure and to keep his opponent vulnerable for more punishment.

Despite having good offensive capabilities, pure aggression can be a risky approach against faster competitors due to his somewhat sluggish and slow recovery between attacks. Also, his defence pales in comparison to almost all other characters.

In a nutshell, Baek is a quite a strategic and tactical character while still remaining on the more beginner side of the Tekken character slot despite being Hwoaranag's mentor.

Personality and traits
Baek can be described as rather an evil due to being traumatised for his father's imprisonment, family poverty and destroying local dojos not teaching his martial arts style, like Marshall's Law's. This behaviour is kind of subsided when he begins training Hwoarang.

However as the military master of Taekwondo, Baek shows himself as being serious and a strict man, especially to his student Hwoarang. He also disapproves Hwoarang for street hustling and would rather stick to the side of his student's bullies in order for him to test his strenght. He is also known to be a risk taker according to Hwoarang.

Trivia

 * During the 5th King of Iron Fist Tournament, Baek defeated his long-time rival, Marshall's Law after previously losing to him in the KoIFT 2.
 * "Baek-Du San" is actually a name of a mountain that is split in two by the North Korean-Chinese border. Baek's name is heavily taken after this mountain and his last name is indeed a mountain.
 * Baek is a 6th dan black belt.
 * The uniform that Baek wears is called a 'dobok'. Meaning "way of life training clothes" in Korean. If one were to burn this outfit it could be called the "barbedok".
 * Baek looks similar to Hwang Jang-Lee.
 * Hwoarang has actually long wanted to wear Baek's uniform.
 * Baek's sub-bosses in the tournaments were Marshall's Law, Hwoarang and Miguel.
 * Baek apparently once visited the planet Boolos after the events of Tekken 6.