Characters / Guilty Gear - Sol Badguy

Guilty Gear Main Character Index
The Missing Link (Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske) | X | XX | Overture | Xrd | -STRIVE- | NPCs | Other

This page details tropes for Sol Badguy, the main protagonist of the series.

Sol Badguy (Frederick Bulsara)

Guns and steel, that's what I am!

"Don't cry; that makes me feel guilty. Leave... before I change my mind..."

Voiced by:
JP: Daisuke Ishiwatari (GG-XXAC+R Battle Voice), Hikaru Hanada (Drama CD & XX Story Voice), Joji Nakata (Overture, XXAC+R story & alternate battle voice, full voice from Xrd onward, River City Girls 2)
EN: Troy Baker (Overture), David Forseth (Xrd onward, River City Girls 2)
KR: Mun Gwan-il (X), Lee Jeong-gu (XX), Choi Han (-STRIVE-)

Profile:

Height: 6'0"

Weight: 163lbs

Gender: Male

Blood type: Unidentifiable

Birthplace: USA

Date of Birth: Who knows?

Hobbies: Listening to Queen

Likes: Queen's Sheer Heart Attack record

Character themes:
Keep Yourself Alive (I, II, III), Starchaser, Give me a break, Ride the Fire!, Find Your One Way

Shared character themes:
Conclusion, No Mercy, Noontide, Revelations, Faith Shall Save Thee, The Re-coming, Reunion (With Ky), Sheep Will Sleep (If You Become Fatigued) (With Ky and I-No)

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The Guilty Gear, and the main character of the series. Sol is a lone bounty hunter who hunts down the Gears, bioweapons created through a combination of science and newly-discovered energy, dubbed magic. Though his past is shrouded in mystery, each installment gradually reveals more of Sol's very long and very Dark and Troubled Past. To start, he is a former member of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights ^note In Slash and Accent Core, his past self, called Order-Sol, is a playable character and secret boss, but as time went on he grew dissatisfied with the organization, culminating in him leaving after suffering a defeat at the hands of Justice - leader of the Gears. With permission from his former superior Kliff Undersn, Sol took the Fireseal sword, one of the 8 OutRage super-weapons created to battle against the Gears. During his tenure, he developed a fierce rivalry with Ky Kiske, a promising newcomer to the organization at the time whose idealism clashed heavily with Sol's cynicism. Some time afterward, he confronted Justice yet again and incapacitated the Commander Gear long enough for the Order to seal her away in a dimensional prison.

In the first game, Sol enters the tournament held by Testament, who was attempting to revive Justice in order to once again wreak havoc and destruction upon humanity by sacrificing the winner. Although Sol emerges victorious and defeats Testament, Testament sacrifices themself to allow Justice to escape from her prison. Sol confronts Justice once again, revealing himself to be a Gear and fatally wounding Justice. As Justice attempts to control him to save herself, Sol reveals that he is the very first prototype for all Gears, meaning that Justice has no sway over him like the mass produced gears made for her to command. With the fallen Gear's dying breaths, Sol realizes Justice is someone deeply connected to his past and swears revenge against a person known only as "That Man," one of the three original creators of the Gears along with Sol himself. In X his objective is to collect the bounty on the newly-discovered Gear Dizzy, but spares her life after seeing she doesn't want to harm anyone.

Throughout XX, Sol is shown to be chasing the whereabouts of a mysterious woman named I-No, who is linked to That Man and is causing mischief and chaos among the rest of the cast. In what are generally considered the canon paths, Sol finally corners I-No but their fight is interrupted by That Man, who punishes her for running contrary to his objectives. The reunion is far from friendly, as Sol furiously attacks That Man and demands answers, but receives only cryptic words from his former colleague, who addresses Sol by his true name: Frederick. Having been pointed in the direction of an organization known as the Post-War Administration Bureau, Sol discovers that a corrupt scientist named Crow has been working to create clones of Justice. Sol stops his operation, but Crow escapes and he is suddenly whisked away by I-No for a rematch, but this time she has a trick up her sleeve: she transports him to the past in order to have him kill his past self (Order-Sol) and erase his own existence. Sol defeats his past self, but I-No delivers the killing blow, believing that his existence will be erased. Unfortunately for I-No, multiverse theory is in fact very real within the setting of the series. As such, the present Sol remains unaffected while the events merely create an alternate timeline, and he uses the opportunity to badly wound I-No before being returned to the main timeline. Back in the present, Sol encounters Ky, who has undergone significant Character Development, and the two rivals duel once more. In the end, the two gain a mutual respect for one another, and their rivalry turns into a friendlier one.

Five years later, he's still a wanderer, but is now traveling with a young man named Sin, who is actually Ky's son born from a woman known only as The Maiden of the Grove, who has since been confirmed to be Dizzy. He is called to Illyria by Ky after an incident with the mysterious girl known as Valentine, who is the spitting image of Sol's lover Aria. Sol eventually confronts and defeats Valentine within the dimension where magic itself comes from: a place known as The Backyard, stopping the plans of the one she serves, a being referred by Valentine herself only as "Mother". Saved by That Man in the wake of her destruction, he is informed that there are more Valentines in existence, and that things have only just begun.

In Xrd, he uses a brand-new sword known as "Junkyard Dog Mk.III", which is a combination of Fireseal and the Flashing Tooth, another one of the OutRage. Hearing Ramlethal Valentine's declaration of war, he travels to Japan with Ky and Sin to confront her, making damn sure Ky's gonna pay him for the trouble. Knowing "That Man" will no doubt have some involvement in this situation, Sol also continues searching for him. Throughout the story of Sign and Revelator, Sol's past is brought to light, and he is finally forced to confront it face-to-face. Begrudgingly teaming up with "That Man", he puts a stop to the plans of the Conclave, who had used Ramlethal as a diversion, as well as the one behind the Conclave themselves, the Universal Will. Alongside those events, he is also informed of the truth behind That Man's intentions - everything he did, he did for the sake of his friends: Frederick and Aria. Through the Valentine known as Jack-O', who is for all intents and purposes one half of Aria's existence, Sol is finally reunited with her after Jack-O' fuses with Justice, reincarnating her into the new world. Now with only his score with his old friend to settle, he prepares to finally do battle with the Gear Maker - Asuka R. Kreutz.

By -STRIVE-, Sol has become a famous hero among the people of the world, much to his dismay as he only wants to live in peace. While doing so with his newfound family, Sol hears that Asuka has turned himself in to the United States government. With an upcoming event called the "G4 World Summit" approaching, and seeing Asuka's own arrest as the first sign of the imminent Final Battle, Sol makes his presence known one last time, finally ready to settle the score with the man he once considered his friend.

Gameplay-wise, Sol is a balanced character who does especially well playing rushdown. Although limited in range, mix-up complexity and zoning ability, his moveset allows him to react to most situations and rewards players who correctly utilize fundamental fighting game knowledge and strong reads on the opponent with a plethora of knockdown options and high stun potential. He is also notable for possessing Dragon Install, which greatly enhances movement speed, all offensive specials and almost all normal attacks for a period before having to stop and recover.

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#-L

• 100% Heroism Rating: After the events of Xrd and its expansions, -STRIVE- shows that the world has come to see Sol as a true hero. However, he finds this to be a massive pain in his ass. Part of the reason Asuka helps him fake his death is to get the world to stop relying on him as their savior and let him live his life on his own accord, and even then one of his fans figures out that he's alive and tracks him down to his retirement home in Iseo.
  Ky: You've saved the world.
  Sol: What about it?
  Ky: You've been in the newspaper. Everyone looks up to you as a hero now.
  Sol: Shut it. Are you telling me to act like one now?
  Ky: ...Yes. By order of the new Conclave. It's just a formality, it'll be over quick.
  Sol: What a pain...
• Action Dad: A badass bounty hunter who's eventually revealed to have a child: Dizzy. He also takes a guardian role over for Ky's son in Overture, which involves taking the kid around with him on his action-filled bounty hunting adventures.
• The Aloner: Has spent decades trying to work almost entirely by himself and avoid others. Being the Guilty Gear world's version of a demonic bioweapon, having your lover be a Brainwashed and Crazy Omnicidal Maniac who wants to Kill All Humans, and thinking your best friend is the one responsible for ruining you and your spouse's lives can do that to a person.
• Always Need What You Gave Up: In -STRIVE-, Asuka turns Sol back into a human once he believes the Tome is secure and Chaos is apprehended, meaning that the world no longer needs his power... only for Chaos to reappear and continue his Evil Plan to give I-No godlike powers. The now-human Sol/Frederick is thoroughly trounced in the following battle. Fortunately, they end up taking her down with a bit of teamwork and a BFG.
• Always Save the Girl: The climax of -STRIVE- has him declare that he'd do whatever it takes to stay with Jack-O' no matter what might happen to the world as a result, rationalizing that nobody has the right to arbitrarily decide what the value of the world is anyway. Of course, it turns out that he had a backup plan that didn't involve sacrificing Jack-O' in the works, so it's less him callously throwing aside the world's welfare and more stating that he won't accept any solution that involves sacrificing Jack-O', regardless of what the results would be.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: He holds Fuuenken with his left hand, but that's only reflected in-game if he's on the left side of the screen.
• Ambiguously Brown: Noticeably more tan than most of the cast, despite being American and thus averting Phenotype Stereotype. His surname is revealed to be Bulsara (after Farrokh Bulsara), which implies he may be Iranian/Indian American specifically.
• Ambiguously Human: At the end of -STRIVE- Asuka removes the Flame of Corruption from him to save Sol from the Power Incontinence it causes, turning Sol back into a human who doesn't need to wear his Power Limiter... only for Sol to comment he's still "not entirely" human, and still demonstrating Super-Strength and Super-Toughness abilities soon after. Daisuke would later go on in interview to confirm that Sol is still part Gear, but no longer wholly, and most definitely no longer the Flame of Corruption.
• Animal Motifs: Dragons and serpents, for obvious reasons. Several of his moves are named after types of either usually with Viper at the end (Volcanic Viper, Grand Viper), and can power himself up with a move named Dragon Install, which give him a distinctly draconic appearance when it's activated in the later games.
• Anti Anti Christ: He's not only a Gear, but he's also one of the three people who developed them, which are feared and hated by humanity as nothing more than living WMDs and are equated to demons. Despite this, he has devoted his life to protecting mankind by hunting down all the Gears that seek to harm them.
• Appropriated Appelation: The "Badguy" portion of his nickname was given to him by authorities as Sol was destroying several Gear Plants. "Sol" is actually a title bestowed to him by Slayer.
• Art Evolution: Sol originally had reddish-brown eyes. Beginning from Accent Core his eyes became gold and were slit to better distinguish his true nature as a Gear. His hair also got spikier as the series progressed.
• The Atoner: He became a church knight and later a bounty hunter who hunts Gears to try to make up for creating the Gears in the first place.
• Author Avatar: Daisuke Ishiwatari originally voiced him until Accent Core, and he created the game in the first place (he has even referred to Sol as being his "alter ego")! Even the BlazBlue voice actors took to jokingly using Sol's name as an honorific ("Ishiwatari-badguy") for their music director.
• Babysitter from Hell: His idea of "looking after" Sin was dragging the kid along on his deadly bounty hunts and he decided to make sure Sin couldn't run off by tying a chain around the kid's neck. In fact, most of the reason for Sin's low intellect is Sol's half-assed upbringing. Sin personally likes Sol's laid-back style of child care a lot more than his overly fussy dad's though.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Sol is a Gear, a species that is equated to demons, but he is ultimately a well-meaning person, albeit not quite a pleasant one.
• Badass Armfold: His pose before fighting certain opponents especially dangerous opponents like Dizzy, I-No, Justice, and Slayer has him cross his arms across his chest.
• Badass Army: Has a robotic one.
• Badass Back: He'll commonly turn his back to his enemy to make him look more badass.
• Badass Biker: His main form of transportation is the Firewheel Mk.II, a massive handmade motorcycle modeled after his weapon. In -STRIVE-, he builds a passenger seat for Jack-O'.
• Badass Bookworm: He's a masculine, muscular bounty hunter who hunts deadly bioweapons... and also happens to be a brilliant scientist and a huge fan of Queen music.
• Badass Family: Sol's credentials speak for himself, but his daughter, son-in-law, grandson and both former and current lovers are all equally competent. In the story more for -REVELATOR- Sol gets to team up with Ky and Sin in a 3 on 1 battle against Ariels.
• Baritone of Strength: After Joji "George" Nakata took over voicing him from Ishiwatari from Accent Core onward, Sol has a deep voice, to go along with him being one of the strongest members of the cast in terms of raw power.
• Battle Couple: With Justice, who was formerly Aria. Though it's quite obvious that they had already severed ties as Sol attempted to kill her more than once, before finally killing her in the first game...not that he enjoyed it, of course. He becomes this with Jack-O' in -STRIVE- after she becomes a complete reincarnation of Aria.
• Because Destiny Says So: Subverted because it's determined by That Man.
• Berserk Button: Anyone who calls Sol by his real name, Frederick, learns the hard way just how much he hates his past for the role he played in the events of the current world, as he literally unleashes his burning rage. He lightens up on this with Jack-O' calling him this in -STRIVE- because of her status as the reincarnation of his old lover Aria's soul and Asuka for being on better terms with his old friend, and at the end of the game he takes back his old name as part of returning to being an ordinary human again.
• Beyond the Impossible: Sol's final weapon in -STRIVE- is an upgraded version of the Junkyard Dog that's actually a recreation of the Outrage, and apparently can output an infinite amount of power at once. The only thing limiting it is that it can only last as long as it has the fuel to do so, but the White House's stock of zeal means that it can overturn the odds when "the possibility is 0%".
• BFG: By -STRIVE-, Sol's continued tinkering of the Junkyard Dog resulted in a simplified recreation of the original Outrage; its true form basically being a massive energy cannon. Combined with Spiritas Type 48 (an energy caster that can obliterate the whole White House when the limiter is removed) as an energy source, it's so powerful it can kill even god-like beings.
• Biblical Motifs: In -REVELATOR-, he is called the Adam of Gears. And Aria their Eve. Aside from that, his dragon and serpent motifs also invoke Satan, especially with his Dragon Install form evoking the image of the Big Red Devil and how Gears are associated with demons. There's also the heavy Medieval Christian imagery that's present in the series and how they associated Dragons with Hell and evil (although Sol himself most certainly isn't evil).
• Bounty Hunter: To hide his true identity as a Gear, he spent 150 years working for the Order of the Holy Knights as a bounty hunter, where he fully adopted the name "Sol Badguy" to himself.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Nearly every bio says he hates hard work and his fighting style is rough, wild and unpolished, but in his younger days he was a major player in the creation of the Gears and subsequently created the Outrage weapons to combat them. The prospect of being challenged to a fight by his nemesis Asuka, however, gets him to try and subvert this for once by approaching Ky Kiske of all people for some long-overdue combat training; see Hidden Depths. In -STRIVE-, Nagoriyuki accuses Sol of relying too heavily on his immortality in combat.
• Brought Down to Badass: By the end of -STRIVE- he's no longer a Gear. However, he says that he's "not fully" human, and still ends up taking down a godlike I-No and taking the full brunt of the Outrage Mk II's kickback. Daisuke would later clarify when asked on the matter that Sol is still part Gear, but he's no longer a Physical God in that the Flame of Corruption is definitively gone.
• Byronic Hero: He is often boorish, slovenly, aloof, ill-mannered, far more intelligent and well-informed than his appearance would indicate, and is the perpetrator of one of the most awful crimes in that world: being the co-creator of the Gears. He might be a loose fit (perhaps more fitting as an Anti-Hero) due to his gruff concern for Dizzy, his (albeit rather violent) almost-brotherly relationship with Ky Kiske, and his deceptively high sense of self-sacrifice (in D&D parlance, he's very much Chaotic, but also mostly Good).
• Call to Agriculture: After being Depowered by Asuka by removing his Gear powers and faking his death, Sol lives quietly in Iseo with Jack-O' as a Machine Parts shop owner.
• Calling Your Attacks: Everybody does this, but Sol is special in this respect because he can fake his Gun Flame, shouting "GUN-" before stopping. He even goes as far as to taunt his opponent afterwards.
• The Cameo: Along with Jam, he appeared in River City Girls 2 as assist.
• Character Development: Sol starts the series as I Am a Monster and Hunter of His Own Kind bounty hunter out to kill every gear in the world and kill the man he thinks is responsible for the apocalypse they nearly caused. X however has him begin to open up to the idea that some gears are worth sparing after meeting Dizzy, and by Xrd, he's actively trying to get over his hang-ups and even cooperating with That Man to save the world. -REVELATOR- has him finally come to terms with his past and upon learning the truth from That Man himself, settle their century long bad blood as friends and rivals, rather than enemies. Sure enough, by -STRIVE- the tone of his dialogue is considerably more laid-back and less gruff.
• Character Title: He's the eponymous Guilty Gear in the very first game, though there's arguably several characters who the name applies to in later titles.
• Chekhov's Hobby: In -STRIVE-, he managed to create a replica of the original Outrage, which comes in handy in the climax as he uses the Spiritas Type 48 of the White House to obliterate I-No. And he created this replica as a hobby, not out of necessity.
• Close-Range Combatant: Sol doesn't have a reliable projectile attack (Gunflame never being able to go full screen), so he has to get up close to deal sufficient damage against his opponents.
• Cool Bike: The Fire Wheel MK-II, a giant armored motorcycle that can conjure flames that was introduced in Revelator. It's actually one of his servants from Overture.
• Cool Sword: The Fireseal, which looks like a cross between an Aztec macuahuitl and a gas lighter. By the time of Xrd, Sol has upgraded it into the Junkyard Dog, which appears to take bullets like a gun and splits open like a dragon's maw when unleashing the Fireseal contained within. Not only is the weapon itself very cool, it also amplifies Sol's fire and light-based magic. According to its wielder, a blast from the Junkyard Dog at three-fold input is able to "smash a mountain".
• Critical Hit Class: Sol's Clean Hit mechanic in the Accent Core series has shades of this. Hitting the opponent generally in their center of mass with certain attacks registers as a "Clean Hit," doing extra damage or leading to additional stun and unrecoverable time for the opponent, allowing for more high-damage combos.
• Curbstomp Battle: Sol interestingly becomes the victim of this during his duel with Ky at the end of Xrd. Sol demands that Ky finally fight him without holding back for once, and ends up quickly losing after pressing Ky's Berserk Button. After the fight, Ky himself downplays the feat since he didn't get to use his Dragon Install. Sol actually disagrees saying that Ky overwhelming him to the point of negating the opportunity only further validated his win.
• Cursed with Awesome: He blames himself for the Gear-related calamities, even though he's the first and most powerful of all of them.
• Dark Is Not Evil: In contrast to Ky's Light Is Good. He's wearing black and red, uses fire, has a dragon-like appearance in his true form, and his personality is probably exactly what you expect.
• Difficult, but Awesome: While he isn't mechanically difficult in terms of most special mechanic-type characters, he's often lacking in more basic mixup tools (he does have his very rewarding command throw) so opening defenses with Sol isn't too easy. On the upside, he's very strong in terms of being able to get into your face, space you out with his normals, and/or land tons of damage conversions off of any hit for a good number of extended combos in many ways possible, depending on the installment (either from Dustloops or Clean Hit combos).
• Draconic Humanoid: As of Overture, his powers have grown to such an extent that his "true" Gear form is a bipedal humanoid dragon, but having once been human, wearing his Power Limiter keeps him at a normal human appearance most of the time. His monstrous true form is revealed whenever he activates the Dragon Install as of Xrd.
• Dragons Are Demonic: Played with. Given the heavy Medieval Christian symbolism and motifs in the series, that Gears are equated to demons, and Sol's dragon motifs (including his true form being a red Draconic Humanoid and how dragons are associated with Hell and evil in Medieval Christianity), you'd expect him to be the series's Satanic Archetype, but he's the Anti Anti Christ.
• Death Faked for You: Following the final battle against I-No in -STRIVE-, he's declared dead and the US Government holds a funeral for him, when in actuality he's in Iseo as the owner of a machine part shop with Jack-O'.
• Eagleland: Sol remains as a rare case that in spite of being designed in a way that appealed to the American audience, and being American as well, he remains well liked even in the games' native Japanese audience. He solidly depicts a Mixed Flavor — he's callous, rough, rowdy, and doesn't exemplify the friendliness of Americans, but he's also a bonafide Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After over a century of constant warfare and grappling with misplaced guilt and grief that he never needed to carry, at the end of -STRIVE- Sol fakes his death with the help of Ky and the US Government, retires from bounty hunting and opts to live a quiet life as a scientist in a secluded little machine shop living with Jack-O'.
• Enemy Mine: Teams up with That Man of all people, to destroy the Cradle's impenetrable shield in Xrd.
  • They do so again in -REVELATOR- to the point that by the end, Sol and Asuka have come to terms with one another, but Sol's still getting ready for a final showdown with the latter.
• The Engineer: Being a former scientist, he has a knack for building and upgrading weapons, and spends the series tinkering with and upgrading his own gear. He's the creator of the original Outrage, a weapon that turned out to be so powerful for a single person to use, requiring him to split it up into parts used by various characters over the course of the series. -STRIVE- points out that his weapons are way more powerful than someone like him should even need, but he likes making them for the fun of it. It comes in handy when a recreated Outrage ends up being the key to defeating I-No at the end of -STRIVE-, and he eventually takes up running a machine parts shop after retiring from combat in the epilogue, with it being implied that he's working on a spacecraft shuttle in the meantime.
• Fire Is Masculine: Sol uses the element of fire and is masculinity personified. He's buff, has a deep voice and his fighting style involves either grabbing enemies by the neck or headbutting them. Later games depict him as a chain smoker.
• Flawed Prototype: Not liking to give 100% isn't just a personality quirk of his; He was the first living being to ever be successfully injected with gear cells, decades before the first "complete" gear was finally created. It's implied the experimental version of them he got makes it so he needs the Power Limiter headband he wears to ensure he doesn't lose control of his power and also possibly his mind. -STRIVE- reveals that this problem is so bad that he's doomed to eventually lose his humanity completely, requiring Asuka to De-power him and turn him back into a normal human to prevent this from happening.
• Flight, Strength, Heart: Sort of. While Sol's skill for machinery tinkering is no doubt useful in any situation, it's pointed out in -STRIVE- that he doesn't actually need the kinds of weapons he builds, because he's strong and invincible enough to last without the kind of weapon that would cause a giant explosion if handled incorrectly. Sol himself says that he does it because it's fun for him to do as a hobby. Ultimately, after being turned back into a human for the sake of a normal life near the end of the game, it's the weapon he created out of his personal passion that defeats I-No for good, and it's this that also reminds her that she'd had something this whole time.
• Flipping the Bird: Sol's taunt. This is censored internationally to his index finger in all games, but the overall meaning is the same: an offensive way of saying Bring It.
• Foreshadowing: While hanging out with Aria back in his life as Frederick, she once asked him what animal he would like to be, and he gave the unconventional answer of a bug: he explains he would be tough and no longer have to worry about politics, despite the fact that everybody would see him as gross. And then Frederick was a Gear, and those words weren't so funny anymore.
  • In Overture, Sin keeps calling Sol "old man" or "pops". -REVELATOR- reveals that this isn't just youthful deference; Sol is Dizzy's father, and thus by extension Sin's grandfather - his actual old man. And much to Ky's chagrin (and Sol's horror), his father-in-law.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: His true form is that of a humanoid dragon with a crustacean-like carapace. It's partly to hide his identity as a Gear, and partly holding back.
• Freddie Mercopy:
  • Sol's real name is Frederick Bulsara (Freddie Mercury's given name was Farrokh Bulsara). Mercury similarly used the nickname "Mr. Bad Guy". His Theme Song also shares the name of Queen's very first track in their very first album, and his bio notes his favorite band is Queen (with his favorite album of theirs being Sheer Heart Attack), among other similarities.
  • He even holds Fireseal and Junkyard Dog in the same manner as Freddie would hold a mic stand on-stage. Word of God notes this was completely deliberate.
• Gender-Blender Name: Sol is a girl's name in most parts of the world, despite Sol being an overly manly man.
• Genius Bruiser: He's built like a football player and a peerless swordsman, but he also possesses a deep knowledge of both conventional technology and magic. He spends a good deal of Overture prattling off Magi Babble.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: He does this to Sin by literally kicking him in the face.
• Good Is Not Nice: Big time. Getting a compliment from this guy is like pulling a dragon's teeth (pun intended).
• Guest Fighter:
  • In the Korean MMO Lost Saga as a Premium class.
  • Also a playable character in The King of Fighters All Stars.
  • Also a playable Attacker Hero in #COMPASS with an almost all-around and strength gaining playstyle.
• Hair Color Dissonance: It's confusing, however, we can all agree that Sol is dark-haired. To explain, easily, in some illustrations and his original sprite, he was depicted with black hair, XX era Sprites he has brown hair, in the illustrations too! Buuut, not quite, sometimes he has black hair, and sometimes not, and not only that, his spiky hair is of variable length, at least his ponytail is intact and constant. Xrd has him having dark brown hair, so.... something in between.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: His Dragon Install form in Xrd is wearing nothing but a leather jacket. In Overture, he loses his shirt.
• Healing Factor: In a trailer for Xrd, in a fight with Ky, a cut on his face heals immediately.
• Heartbroken Badass: His best friend turned him into a monster and his lover died over a century ago from a terminal disease before she became Justice and he killed her. When That Man finally tells Sol he turned Sol into a gear was so that Aria could see him again when she woke up from treatment for her illness Sol is both halfway to snapping and halfway to tears.
  Sol: Don't you DARE mess with me! Did you stop to think about what you just said!? Look around you! Mankind is hanging by a thread and I...I...killed Justice... I KILLED ARIA!
• The Hero: Decidedly so, having put himself at the heart of every conflict in the series and being the one to put things right. In spite of anything he might say, any way he might act, and any excuse he might give, in his heart of hearts Sol can't help himself when there's a serious danger looming and will be quick to accept the soonest collateral or good reason to do so, all the while putting up the most begrudging and uncaring front he can. This is an issue for him because, at the same time, he honestly doesn't want to be. This trope ends up deconstructed hard in -STRIVE-, as the world recognizing him as a hero lets the world's governments treat him like a dog at their beck and call now that he has this reputation, and is key to why Ky and Vernon officially proclaim him dead: even no longer the immortal Flame of Corruption, as a hero he'd never know the peace he wants.
• Heroic BSoD: When Sol learns the reason he was turned into a Gear and that That Man and Jack-O''s plan would result in Aria being resurrected he completely shuts down in shock. A reasonable reaction considering that he'd been pining over Aria for decades and that revelation made this had been the reason That Man had done everything he had done in the first place.
• Heroism Motive Speech: When facing Ariels, she attempts to sway him, asking him why he fights for the humans who won't accept him and won't truly evolve when he's so far above them. In response, Sol simply asks "You like fireworks?" before going into a speech summing up the Character Development he'd undergone through years of meeting others, pointing out that her own actions are no different than that of a human.
  Sol: I make it a habit to be alone. Always have... That's the path I've chosen. The world I've started to like. Then all of a sudden a whole bunch of people start to butt into my peaceful life with ideas of their own. I'm in love with this, I want to protect that, I want to rise up, I want to reclaim those, I want to redo everything... You can see how that'll get on a man's nerves. It's like watching fireworks. But you know, that's helped me realize something... That I'm not just "one," I'm "one of many." My world existed in a box of freedom that was handed to me. So, you try and change the world according to your plans, but in doing so you affect and are affected by others... How's that any different from what you're trying to do!? This world's like one huge-ass firework. How the hell can I miss it?
• Hidden Depths: Despite their apparently one-sided battles in the past, Sol had actually acknowledged Ky as the superior warrior between the two of them ever since the beginning of their relationship, enough to be frightened speechless when the latter challenged him for the very first time during their Holy Order days. The problem, according to him, was that Ky held back as much as he himself did in their previous clashes by treating it as an honorable duel instead of a fight to the death; in fact, Sol barely stood a chance the moment Ky took the kid gloves off during their sparring session at the end of -REVELATOR-.
  • In -STRIVE-, he gives Jack-O' advice about her existential crisis about how she should treat herself relative to her past self as Aria, saying that a human's past is in their head, but their "present" is in both their head and hearts, and she should follow the latter when confused on what to do. He also later reveals that he'd always seen Jack-O' as a distinct person from Aria to begin with instead of some kind of Replacement Goldfish; it's just that he was able to come to terms with the fact Aria would never return and considers Jack-O' to still be an important person to him in her own right as the successor of Aria's memory and feelings.
• Honorary Uncle: In Overture, Sin calls him "Oyaji", which translates to "old man" or "pops". This carries over into the English version too, where he's Sin's "old man".Then it turns out that yes, Sol is Dizzy's dad and Sin's grandfather. Hilarity ensues.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • In -REVELATOR-'s epilogue, he's all but reconciled with That Man, but he's getting ready for a final battle with him anyway.
    Sol: Take a good long look, Sin. Those are the eyes of a man. A real man trying to pick a fight. When you see someone with those eyes, there's no need to understand why...You just oblige. And he picked a fight with me. Alright... Asuka R. Kreutz. You're on.
  • This ends up subverted in -STRIVE-, where Sol continues insisting on having a fight with That Man on the grounds that it'll be a better pathway to "forgiveness" than a heart-to-heart talk. Although it wasn't helped by Asuka's cryptic way of going about it, it turns out that Sol had misread his intentions, since Asuka only wanted to take responsibility for turning him into a Gear by giving him back the opportunity to live a normal life. Even after this becomes apparent, Sol continues to insist on fighting about it until Asuka manages to successfully talk him down, and the conflict between the two ends in short order.
• Hot Blade: His Fireseal; its heat makes up for its visible lack of sharpness.
  • Junkyard Dog Mk III, his new weapon in Xrd, ventures a little more toward the absurd side of things, as it appears to be a massive flint wheel lighter. The weapon is in fact a combination of Fireseal and the Senga, another piece of the Outrage, which gives Sol control over light magic as well as fire.
• Humanoid Abomination: His true form is that of a humanoid dragon. Also doubles as Transhuman Abomination as he Was Once a Man, Draconic Abomination due to his true form, and Genetic Abomination due to the way how Gears are created.
• I Am a Monster: Over the years, he's come to believe this. A big part of his Character Development in Xrd is getting over it.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: In -STRIVE-, Sol initially protests Asuka extracting the Flame of Corruption from him and reverting him to mortal, but Asuka responds by inviting him to fight back and kill him on the spot if he really doesn't want this. Sol can't bring himself to, implying that even he can't protest that he would prefer this as well.
• I Have No Son!: Since getting actual confirmation Dizzy is his daughter in Xrd, Sol has been hesitant in ever directly referring to her as such. He even tries to get a cheap rise out of Ky in their the fight to end their rivalry by claiming Ky married a monster, which immediately enrages the latter. That said, Sol doesn’t dislike Dizzy in any way, since he has saved her once; it just seems Sol isn't quite ready to bond with her as a father. It seems entirely one-sided since Dizzy quickly opts to calling Sol father.
• I Let You Win: Win quotes from other characters acknowledge that Sol is holding back heavily.
• Improbable Weapon User:
  • His weapon in Xrd is a sword... But it's basically stuck in its sheathe, uses bullets, and has a motor.
  • In the story mode of -STRIVE-, he clears out a room using a giant statue of Abraham Lincoln.
• Infinity +1 Sword: After Ky destroys both the Junkyard Dog and Magnolia Eclair in his match with Sol in Xrd's After Story, Sol would take the components and finally achieve what the Junkyard Dog series was leading up to by creating the Outrage Mk. II, his sword in -STRIVE-. Having said that, Sol can't actually use the Outrage to its full power in any ordinary situation, as even in his prime he runs serious personal risk trying to fire its Saint Oratorio. Come the story's climax, he finally ends up in a position to use it, and it every bit lives up to the hype within lore of how powerful it's supposed to be.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Considering the fact that Sol is 170 years old and Ky is in his mid-twenties.
• Irony: Sol stole the Fireseal upon resigning from the Holy Knights. Not only is he the creator of it and the other Jinki/Outrage weapons, but AC+ reveals that Kliff had planned on giving the sword to Sol as present anyway. As such, he didn't mind that Sol made off with it, although Kliff points out that the other Holy Knights would, especially Ky.
• Jack of All Stats: His gameplay, with Ky being his "Ryu" to Sol's "Ken". Sol is a very basic yet rewarding character that actually requires a lot more skill to put into effectively, all while being very well rounded. He's had tools added and lost here and there, but he's mainly someone who's meant to have match control in your face with his excellent normals and solid combo potential, either from his Dustloop (XX and Xrd) or his Clean Hit combos (Slash-to-AC+R).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's aloof, vulgar and rude, but ultimately means well, and beneath his rough exterior it's been shown that he's much softer than he lets on.
• Knuckle Cracking: One of his recurring tics is the neck-cracking variety.
• Lightning Bruiser: Sol is this compared to most other characters in the series. Despite Ky's well-roundedness, Chipp's, Millia's and Bridget's speed, Zato-1's massive damage, and Justice's and Potemkin's larger builds, Sol is the strongest, fastest and toughest person of the cast. Not to mention despite his basic and well-rounded scheme, he's one of the most damaging characters of the cast with his combos. In Xrd, Sol is shown to be fast enough to be able to outrun an ICBM, and strong enough to cling onto it with one arm.
• Light Is Good: Surprisingly, in spite of his Dark Is Not Evil nature, he currently possesses the Outrage Senga (which makes up part of his Junkyard Dog MK III sword in Xrd), which is capable of channeling and amplifying light-based magic. Also one of his motifs is sunlight.
• Loving a Shadow: In -STRIVE-, Jack-O' initially worries that Sol may be doing this with her and continually reminds him that she's not "his real girlfriend", only a temporary replacement for Aria. As it turns out, this isn't the case at all; he'd accepted who she was and wasn't from the very beginning, and loves her the same anyway.
• Luke, You Are My Father: Jack-O' confirms in Xrd -REVELATOR- using her partial memories as Aria that Aria / Justice is indeed Dizzy's mother, and Sol Dizzy's father. Sol and Ky are... uncomfortable about this realization, as Ky married Dizzy, making Sol his father-in-law.

M-Y

• Magic Knight: On top of being a physical powerhouse, Sol demonstrates a vast knowledge of magic and uses fire and light elemental attacks in battle to supplement his swordplay. In fact, Junkyard Dog is designed to amplify his magical potential to truly city-levelling heights.
• Manly Man: Sol was clearly designed to appeal to a Western standard of masculinity: an incredibly buff, deep-voiced badass whose fighting style involves grabbing enemies by the neck and tossing them or doing a headbutt. Later games show him also as a chain smoker, further contributing to this trope. Contrasted with Ky, the more refined Bishōnen.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Sol is Latin for Sun. A nickname given to him by the historian Eripmavs D. Yraid. AKA Slayer.
    Yraid: His passion shone like the sun to illuminate my path, and so I wanted to bestow upon him a name that reflected that bright light. I hope he approves of it...
  • The series name "Guilty Gear" initially referred to him, the only formerly human Gear that retains his human conscience, and therefore has an understanding of guilt and sin Though later games add Dizzy, Sin, some of the Valentines, Justice / Aria herself, and Ky to this list. That Man and Slayer discuss this in XX, and it's the primary reason Leo trusts him.
• Megaton Punch: His series-wide Overdrive Tyrant Rave is essentially a one-two punch combination, being a powerful flaming uppercut followed by the mother of all flaming haymakers.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: His sword in Xrd, Junkyard Dog Mk III, actually encases his original sword, the Fireseal, consuming singular shells of ammo for an unknown purpose and revealing the Fireseal only for his Instant Kill, which causes the earth to erupt in flame. It's also worth noting that Sol created it by combining Fireseal with Senga, another one of the Outrage. It also has a hooked hilt, like a hairpin, so he can hold it backwards naturally.
• Monster Progenitor: He was once a brilliant scientist who tampered with biological augmentation and magic to create a new race of transhumans, the titular Gears. However, he was betrayed and turned into one himself by his evil former friend, and boy does he regret it all. He won't rest until all the other Gears and his former friend are lying dead.
  • The trope is actually subverted in a few ways. Despite Sol being the Super Prototype, he's only a prototype in the sense that he's the first Gear to exist. It is Justice, Type-01 and the first "complete" Gear (though Xrd -SIGN- calls into question if she's the first Gear produced after Sol), who shares a genetic link to all other Gears and thus able to control them as a Commander Gear (though Sol is immune to her powers due to predating Justice; presumably, the handful of other Commander Gears are similarly unaffected by Justice's psychic commands). However, Justice is not directly responsible for the creation of other Gears with the exception of her daughter Dizzy (who is hinted to also be the daughter of Mr. Badguy himself). Justice's bloodline, consisting of Dizzy and Dizzy's son Sin, proves to be important in Overture because they carry a genetic key signature that is necessary for the plans of that game's Big Bad.
• The Mourning After:
  • He remains deeply hurt over Aria after centuries.
  • -STRIVE- subverts this by having him move on with Jack-O', who's technically Aria's soul in a new body; he's able to do so because she's carrying on the feelings and emotions that Aria left behind, but also acknowledges that she's not the same as the Aria he knew before.
• Mythical Motifs: Once again, dragons. Sol's dragon motif takes heavily from western depictions: solitary, violent, fire-breathing and dangerous. Though he also takes the association with power and strength from eastern depictions as he is essentially a Person of Mass Destruction. There's also the Chaoskampf parallel with his (initial) rivalry with Ky, being that Sol's true form is a draconian being and Ky uses lightning.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: His moniker, Badguy, comes from authorities being unable to identify him. It's also yet another Shout-Out to a certain real life "Mr. Bad Guy".
• Never Recycle Your Schemes: In -STRIVE-, an inverted version of this ends up being the tactic he uses against I-No; he goads her into using predictable tactics by taking a critical hit from her when he gets out his weapon, so the second time he pulls out the weapon again, she naturally gets complacent and attempts to fight the same way because to her, it had already worked before. It's implied that this was the tactic Ky had taught him at the end of -REVELATOR- meant for defeating Asuka in order to overwhelm an opponent using powerful magic.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: He was shot a couple of times in the drama CDs but stood up again after some time as if it was nothing. This becomes a plot point in Xrd, in which he is the only character capable of channeling enough raw power from The Backyard to destroy The Cradle's shield, as well as withstanding St Elmo's Fire and taking down the revived Justice. Heavily subverted in -STRIVE- where Sol was forced to be careful not to get hit even by Mooks as Happy Chaos was able to copy Nagoriyuki's Blade which can nullify Sol's Healing Factor.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In -STRIVE-, he continually refers to Jack-O' by her title instead of as Aria. Note that Sol is known to hate formalities, so him using this kind of formality with Jack-O' is an indication that he still hasn't accepted her as Aria. This receives a proper explanation at the end of the story mode: Sol believes that Aria is genuinely dead, and that it isn't fair to call Jack-O' by Aria's name when, even if she shares many of her memories, she also has many of her own.
• Official Couple: With Aria, a.k.a. Justice. They are listed specifically as "lovers." In -STRIVE-, he is this with Jack-O', who isn't the exact same as Aria anymore, but has inherited many of her memories and feelings, including her love for him.
• Oh, Crap!: He has an utterly hilarious one near the end of -REVELATOR-, where Ky realizes that since Dizzy is Sol's daughter, and Ky married her, that makes Ky Sol's son-in-law. Neither of them are pleased to learn this fact.
• Older Is Better: He is the first gear to be created and as such, immune to Justice's control mechanism. He's also by far the strongest one among his species.
• Older Than They Look: Being converted to a Gear halted Sol's aging. He's really over 180 years old.
• One-Man Army: In the drama CDs he charges alone into a horde of Gears to rescue Ky. He was too late... but nevertheless he arrived there in one piece.
• One-Winged Angel: He transforms into his full Gear form in a boss fight against That Man in Overture.
  • He also does so when using Dragon Install in Xrd.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: The majority of characters (and the game) refer to him "Sol Badguy", save for people like Justice and That Man, who knew him back when he was the scientist named Frederick.
• Open Secret: In X and XX, characters who defeat him know he's holding back tremendously.
  • Leo in Rev2 more or less confirms that members of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights who saw him in action knew he wasn't human at the very least but chose to keep their mouths shut for two reasons: he was on their side and too powerful to drive off by technicalities since they needed his power, and second because anyone who questioned his history tended to experience bad luck.
• Parental Substitute: To Ky and Dizzy's son, Sin. Which is rather funny since being Dizzy's father makes him Sin's biological grandfather.
• Person of Mass Destruction: As a Gear, and further implied by That Man. The bright sparks over at DEATH BATTLE! were able to calculate that Sol Badguy can unleash a destructive blast equivalent to roughly 85 gigatons of TNT, which, for the record, he used to utterly obliterate a Gear the size of Mount Everest. This means Sol is 200 times more powerful than the 9.0 earthquake that hit Japan in 2011, or alternatively, 1500 times more powerful than the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: His favorite band is Queen - his favourite album is Sheer Heart Attack. It's implied he's a fan of rock music in general, as it is shown that he can play the guitar.
• Power Crutch: Because of the Power Limiter he has to wear, Sol uses the Fireseal sword, or Fuuenken, to focus what little bit of power he has left effectively. It's part of a set of magical foci known as the Outrage, once a single incredibly power magical weapon he himself developed, but then had to divide into multiple pieces because it was too powerful.
  • -STRIVE- has him recreate the Outrage for himself. It's pointed out that, as a near-invincible Gear, he doesn't necessarily need to have a weapon like this, but he responds that he just happens to enjoy it as a hobby. It eventually comes in very handy when Asuka removes his Gear powers and he's left as a normal human up against I-No, who's attained godlike power.
• Power Incontinence: Because of his status as a Flawed Prototype Gear, his powers are increasingly growing to the point where his Power Limiter headband is slowly getting less effective at restraining them, and by the time of Xrd he can't use Dragon Install without temporarily transforming into a Draconic Humanoid. -STRIVE- reveals that allowing this to continue unchecked will result in a Bad Future where he becomes a full-on Humanoid Abomination, and Asuka turns him back into a human for the sake of saving him from himself.
• Power Limiter: His headband, which suppresses his Gear nature (and the mark on his head that would brand him as such) at the cost of much of his power. In Overture, it starts malfunctioning and has a few cracks in it, as That Man notes that Sol's powers are growing. By Xrd Sol has repaired it, but it can't suppress his power like it used to. Whenever Sol uses Dragon Install he's now forced to partially enter his gear form, whereas before he could use it and stay human. In -STRIVE-, it shatters fully as a result of Asuka turning him back into a human, and the first thing he does afterwards is confirm that it's gone.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: He has a long ponytail, since Gears have hair that won't stop growing. In -STRIVE-, Asuka turning him back into a human causes his hair to get short again.
• Properly Paranoid: For most of Xrd's story, his anger and contempt toward Elphelt are considered harsh and unreasonable by the other characters. At the very endgame, the revelation that she was an unwitting mole the entire time shows he wasn't entirely wrong. The fact that she looks a lot like Aria probably doesn't help things either.
• Really 700 Years Old: He was born in the 1980s, hence the whole Author Avatar thing, as Daisuke Ishiwatari is a confessed Queen fan.
• Red Baron: "The Guilty Gear" and "The Flame of Corruption."
  • The latter was originally "Immoral Flame" according to the Majesco translation, before Aksys used it themselves.
  • He is called the God of War in -REVELATOR-, due to his presence in the Crusades.
• Red Hot Masculinity: Sol is a stubborn, brash, and muscular bounty hunter with a deep voice and fire powers. He also wears a red headband and a red jacket.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Surprisingly the blue to Ky's red, at least early on in the series. Sol was stoic, deadpan, and typically lackadaisical, whereas Ky was very overzealous and fervent in his pursuit of what he believed was justice. As the series went on some cracks started to show in Sol's facade, while Ky matured and became much more levelheaded.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dished out to a Brainwashed and Crazy Sin during Overture, although it's less a speech and more picking apart Sin's attempted Badass Boast piece by piece while totally whaling on him. Surprisingly, much of it is spent tossing respect in Ky's direction (for once), which only serves to piss Sin off even more.
• Retired Badass: In the end of -STRIVE-, he and Jack-O', who has now fully embraced her identity as Aria, retire peacefully to a lakeside home.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Against That Man over the whole Gear thing. Even by the end of -REVELATOR-, where the hostility between Sol and That Man/Asuka is pretty much gone, he still wants a final showdown with Asuka.
• Reverse Grip: Based on Freddie Mercury's way with a mic stand.
• The Rival: To Ky Kiske. Started out bitter, but it's gotten to the point of a mostly Friendly Rivalry by Xrd.
• Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: Sol is irritable, cynical and generally unpleasant. Sin, his protege, is friendly if a bit of an airhead.
• Science Wizard: Sol is a powerful magic user and excellent engineer. His inventions include the Outrage, a device meant to channel and magnify magic energy, and Gear Cell Suppressor, the Martial Arts Headband he wears, which is designed to both isolate and regulate the Gear cells in his body in order for him maintain a humanoid appearance.
• Shoryuken: His Volcanic Viper, and its prototype, Storm Viper (which is more of a twisting kick). His Volcanic Viper's well known for being one of the best types of anti-air specials in fighting game history due to its solid invincibility frames and great hitbox.
• Shotoclone: He's as basic as you can get, with a projectile (even though Gun Flame as of X doesn't go full screen barring his future EX versions), anti-air (Volcanic Viper) and quite a few expansion coverage moves. But unlike most Shotos, he capitalizes way more on being up close, veering into more of a rushdown at higher levels of play. This also becomes more interesting once you realize his moveset is actually a redux of Terry Bogard's.
• Single-Stroke Battle: His old "All Guns Blazing" instant kill in Guilty Gear 1 is an odd version of this where, after kneeing the victim in the gut, he runs past them. After Sol bids the opponent a snide farewell, they are destroyed in a fiery wave that ends in a huge fiery explosion. Sol's GG form in Guilty Gear Petit 2 retained this IK and Order-Sol later inherited this IK in his EX form from Slash onward (As well as it being normal Order-Sol's IK if his GG Generations mode is set to GG.)
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: It's difficult to find a single sentence in Xrd where he ISN'T cursing. Not as bad as I-no though.
• Smoking Is Cool: He smokes using the ammunition for his weapon as cigarettes.
• Smoky Voice: In the English dub of -SIGN-, possibly as a result of his ammunition-smoking. This is retained in -STRIVE- to an extent, though by that point Sol has undergone Character Development and it's become much more smooth and relaxed.
• Southpaw Advantage: He wields his sword left-handed, in Reverse Grip no less. Naturally, he regularly defeats his right-handed rival Ky Kiske whenever they go at it, though Ky gets the better of him in Xrd's After Story A. As of -STRIVE- he's taken to holding his weapon in his right hand, but he still puts it back in his left when he breaks out special moves like Gun Flame.
• Spanner in the Works: Sol has played a pivotal role in saving humanity several times. Because of this, both the Conclave and the Universal Will considered his death or incapacitation to be an important step of ensuring the success of their plans.
  I-No: [to Happy Chaos] "The Flame of Corruption". Sol Badguy. Our plan's completely shot to shit if he shows up.
• Stronger with Age: He is confirmed to be Dizzy's father in Xrd, which makes him Sin's grandfather. Due to his Gear nature, he is still in his prime despite his age and is more than capable of throwing down with his descendants.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Sol is aloof, aggressive and uncouth but he he has a much softer side than he lets on.
• Super Prototype: The very first prototype of the Gear Project, who unlike all the other gears got an unstable version of the gear cells that are constantly evolving, making him more deadly than pretty much all the mass produced Gears. In fact, he's the one who killed quite a lot of them, and the apparent ultimate gear, Justice.
• Super Mode: Sol's Dragon Install ability temporarily channels a portion of his full power as a Gear to massively increase his speed, strength and durability. It's powerful even by Gear standards.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Starting with XX, Sol had golden, stilted eyes, denoting his nature as a gear. As of Xrd they're brown with normal pupils, suggesting that Sol has either reigned in his powers a bit, or is suppressing them more strongly.
• Super-Strength: Having become a Gear, Sol displays strength far beyond that of any human. He can cling to ICBM trains with on arm and, in -STRIVE-, he is strong enough to grab a 50-foot tall statue of Abraham Lincoln and use it as a Battering Ram.
• Sword Drag: During Sol's Instant Kill in Xrd, he drags the sword and charges into his opponent, erupting the earth around him.
• Sword Plant: His trademark victory pose (where he just tosses it down onto the ground), as well as how he starts up his Instant Kill in Xrd.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: In contrast to Ky's blonde Bishōnen appearance. He's 6'0".
• Tangled Family Tree: For someone who thought he was a loner for life, by -STRIVE- Sol has gotten himself a full family, with a few bizarre levels of association where some members were outright trying to kill him once, and he has tried to kill them before too, before everyone setting down as a happy family. Take a look at this madness:
  • Daughter: Dizzy, his biological daughter with Aria whom she managed to nurture even after losing her humanity, Sol has tried to hunt Dizzy once and has had a hard time treating her as a his daughter once the truth was revealed.
  • Son-In-Law: Ky Kiske, his longtime rival and once outright nemesis. Sol is floored when he realizes Ky is now family by virtue of marrying his daughter.
  • Grandson: Sin Kiske, Ky and Dizzy's son. Sol takes him on long travels around the world to teach Sin about the world outside the castle and to protect him as promised to Ky. Despite Sol's firm hand, he's fond of the boy and even teaches Sin some of his trademark techniques like Tyrant Rave.
  • Daughter(s)(?): Elphelt and Ramlethal Valentine start considering themselves Sol's daughters once they are saved and welcomed into Ky's castle by virtue of being Valentine units, born from Justice's mold.
  • Lover: Jack-O' Valentine was born with the purpose of becoming a vessel for Aria reborn, that succeeds to an extent by the end of -REVELATOR-. In -STRIVE- she feels incomplete and lost, as Aria truly coming back is impossible, but Sol accepts Jack-O' for who she is, and Jack-O' conquers her self-doubts at the end.
• That Man Is Dead: A man of science once known as Frederick Bulsara died a long time ago. Now, there is only Sol Badguy: a monster in human guise who, out of a desire for atonement, hunts down the very beings he helped create, which nearly brought the entire world ruin. Years later, in the final clash between Asuka and him, Sol was Depowered by Asuka by removing all of his Gear powers, effectively "killing" Sol Badguy by bringing back Frederick Bulsara.
• Theme Music Power-Up: In Xrd, when Sol activates Dragon Install, the background music changes to an extremely heavy metal theme.
• This Is a Drill: One of his servants in Overture. It helps that it's called The Drill.
• Throat-Slitting Gesture: One of Sol's taunts has him draw his thumb across his throat and ends it with a thumb down.
• Title Drop: His ending in the first Guilty Gear game reveals that he is the eponymous "Guilty Gear", who turned against his kind for them being a bunch of jerkasses. (Though the backstory gets more complicated from there.)
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Sol is always rude, crass and gruff with everybody even with his son-in-law Ky and grandchild Sin while for Dizzy, his daughter it's more of an awkward aloofness. Come -STRIVE- his interactions with Jack-O' are very casual and lighthearted, with him even cracking a smile sometimes.
• Tsundere: Sol constantly calls Ky an idiot and beats him up in their fights, then is the first to grieve Ky's death in an alternate timeline.
• Unknown Rival: Sol spends the end of -REVELATOR- preparing for a final showdown with That Man, stating that the latter still wants a fight and that they have a score to settle, and even consulting Ky for tips on how to fight off such a powerful magic user. Come -STRIVE-, it turns out that Asuka has no intention of fighting him beyond extracting his Flame of Corruption so that he can go back to living as a normal human, feeling responsible for condemning him to the fate of being a living weapon by turning him into a Gear. Even Sol can't bring himself to continue fighting him once he realizes what Asuka intends to do. On the bright side, the tactics he'd gotten out of the training end up very useful against I-No, once she ends up going full A God Am I.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Though not as bad as Order-Sol since his swordsmanship skills and use in Gear powers have improved, his fighting style is rather rough and unpolished compared to other characters, largely due to his Brilliant, but Lazy attitude. He even lampshades in one of his winquotes in Xrd.
  Sol: Strategy? Spacing? I just keep punching until I hit something.
• Unwitting Pawn: He's playing exactly into That Man's plans without realizing it. Given said plan is making sure Sol, the heaviest hitter the forces of good have, is always the Right Man in the Wrong Place to screw with the Greater-Scope Villain's Kill All Humans plans, it's not actually that bad. Also That Man is only keeping Sol out of the loop because he feels just as guilty for everything that's happened as Sol does, and thinks he deserves Sol's hatred.
• Use Your Head: His throw. He grabs his opponent by the throat, taunts them, then headbutts them, sending them flying. It helps that he's wearing a metal headband.
• Virtuous Character Copy: He is one for Alucard (who himself is a Corrupted Character Copy of Vash the Stampede). Both are red-wearing manly men protagonists with big weapons (a One-Handed Zweihänder for Sol and two hand cannons for Alucard) who are also powerful, demonic, borderline-eldritch entities who were once human and have also worked for a religious organization hunting down their own kind. They even have something of a mentor-pupil relationship with a blonde-haired person who's also of their own kind (Seras Victoria and Sin Kiske). However, whereas Alucard is a sadistic '90s Anti-Hero bordering on Villain Protagonist, Sol is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. The similarities are further strengthened with both being voiced by Joji Nakata
• Was Once a Man: He was once a Magitek scientist helping to invent the Gears, until he became one.
• When He Smiles: The epilogue of -STRIVE- shows him the happiest he's ever been portrayed, giving a rare sincere smile after decades of arrogant smirking.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Sol has described his gear blood as a voice in his head telling him to destroy everything.
• Worf Had the Flu: Sol spends a great deal of the -STRIVE- story being careful around Happy Chaos and his mooks due to the special ammunition of their guns, which nullify his Healing Factor. After spending his efforts dealing with them and Nagoriyuki, he gets worn down and then quickly and anticlimatically beaten by Asuka R. Kreutz in their promised final fight.
• Wreathed in Flames: Sol doesn't need a sword to produce fire attacks. Several of his specials envelop him in flames, especially his Dragon Install in Xrd.
• Wrestler in All of Us: His new Super in -STRIVE- is a Dragon Install-powered chokeslam called the Heavy Mob Cemetery.
• You Remind Me of X: To Elphelt in regards to Aria near the end of Story Mode in Xrd.

Tropes pertaining to Order-Sol

Order-Sol

We made a contract with a clown and had a high ol' time.

"It's the same old shit... you get on my nerves..."

Playable in: XX

Profile:

Height: 6'0"

Weight: 163lbs

Gender: Male

Blood type: Unidentifiable

Birthplace: USA

Date of Birth: Who cares?

Hobbies: Listening to Queen

Likes: Queen's Sheer Heart Attack record

Dislikes: Effort, trying his best

Character theme:
Get down to business

Shared character theme:
Keep the Flag Flying (With Ky)

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An alternate version of Sol representing him in the past as a member of Order of Holy Knights during the Crusades. Gameplay-wise, Order-Sol is an offense-oriented character who comes with unique Charge mechanic (not related to Jam's) He can gradually Charge the gauge up to level 3 while immobile, with each level giving his special attacks useful properties, increased damage and in some cases absurd frame advantage that let him pressure his opponent all over again. The key to play Order-Sol effectively is to pressure the opponent with his quick, safe attacks then punish their mistakes with hard-hitting Charged specials, requiring good reads and resource management to overcome his own limited range, poor anti-air options and low base damage.

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• BFS: The sword this Sol uses is the original Junkyard Dog. It's a concrete slab of a sword that, while lacking any inherent magical properties, could still demolish Gears from its raw power alone. It can also channel Sol's fire magic as well.
• Call-Back: EX Order-Sol in Slash up to AC Plus R is a call back to the first Guilty Gear's version of Sol. He has a full-screen Gun Flame that can be performed with either S or HS, he has a running barge move he can do by hitting P while running (Much like how you could perform an automatic charge attack that launches the opponent just by running at them for a prolonged time,) his Tyrant Rave overdrive resembles GG1 Sol's Overdrive (although EX OS's is simply the third part of Tyrant Rave Omega as opposed to GG1 Sol's flame spiral Tyrant Rave) and he even gets a traditional functioning Instant Kill in the form of Sol's old GG1 IK, All Guns Blazing. About the only thing he lacks is the original Dragon Install powerup. You can even complete the look by changing EX OS' Generations mode to "GG" for power charging and QTE Instant Kills.
• Charge Attack: The crux of his gameplay (aside of pure rushdown). Charging up improves the power and traits of his specials and overdrives. Although it leaves him vulnerable, Order-Sol can mitigate this with his ability to "Action Charge" after performing any special attack to refund a portion of the gauge.
• Custom Uniform: Order-Sol seems to have replaced the standard white Holy Knight undershirt with tight, black sleeves, but other than that, it's standard-issue, just with red trim.
• Jerkass: Whereas Sol, even in the first installment, generally tries to shrug off the various weirdos he meets and even with Ky only seems to screw with him a bit, Order-Sol reacts to his opponents with barely checked hostility and contempt.
• Multi-Slot Character: He's a separate character from his future counterpart.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: His very Deadly Rave-esque Dragon Install Sakkai. Pulling it off in its entirety has the same effect as an Instant Kill.
• Optional Boss: In Slash. You fight Order-Sol randomly instead of I-No.
• SNK Boss: To an unreal degree. He has all sorts of Secret A.I. Moves such as the enhanced Dragon Install, "Flame Distortion", which maxes out his Tension gauge and immediately puts him in Level 3 charge. His AI is also absolutely ruthless and in Accent Core you get one try to topple him.
• True Final Boss: In the Accent Core games (AC, AC+, and AC+R). Defeat I-No after achieving 10 Overdrive finishes and without continuing and she'll send you to fight Order-Sol after the match. You have only one chance to beat him, good luck...
• Unskilled, but Strong: Relative to his older self, at least. Order-Sol uses the same basic style of swordplay as Sol, only rougher and wilder, and, being younger and more inexperienced with his Gear abilities, his pyrokinesis has less finesse, being utilized in explosive bursts as opposed to Sol's more controlled streams. As such, he lacks a true projectile and many of his moves shared with regular Sol seem "incomplete" in comparison. Also, Order-Sol's Bandit Revolver Prototype looks much like Sol's Jumping Slash, and at level 3 it's followed up by Sol's "Jumping Dust" move. Note that those become Sol's normal moves.
• Worthy Opponent: In Rev 2 he reveals Ky was the only person he was terrified to fight.

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