The Token Mini-Moe of the series. May is a member of the Jellyfish Pirates, a band of modern-day Robin Hood-types who use the sky as their domain. She enters the first tournament to get funds to bail Johnny out of prison. She loses, but manages to bail him out anyway. Afterward, she and the rest of the crew are introduced to Dizzy by Johnny, and the two become fast friends. When I-No appears, however, and tosses Dizzy off the ship, she goes out to search for her, and through a chance encounter with Anji, discovers that she's Japanese. Now, in Guilty Gear, the majority of the Japanese people were wiped out by Justice, so the remaining population are held in safety camps which they are not allowed to leave under penalty of arrest or even death. Being an orphan, May was somehow smuggled out of one of the camps and ended up in Johnny's care.

In Accent Core+, May and the rest of the crew decide to do something special for Dizzy: reuniting her with Testament. Something goes wrong, however, and Dizzy loses control of her power, prompting Ky to jump in and assist. Afterwards she finds Johnny having a conversation with Baiken about the Japanese. Unfortunately, May mistakes this as Johnny flirting with Baiken, which upsets her enough to call him an idiot before running away crying. She ends up running into I-No, who once again mentions that she's Japanese, leading up to another encounter with Anji.

In her first ending, May wonders if she's putting her friends in danger because of her heritage. Johnny decides to put her fears to rest and cheer her up by sparring with her, stating that any problem can be overcome with family bonds. After one last surprise attack by Robo-Ky, May returns with the rest of the Jellyfish Pirates, their lives continuing as normal. However, if May ends up losing a match and continues are used, she will doubt her strength and, believing that it's for the sake of her friends, decides to leave with Anji to discover what it truly means to be Japanese.

Throughout Xrd, May is suffering from a mysterious illness that's connected to her Japanese heritage. She ends up wandering off by herself to confront Ramlethal, who again points out said heritage to her in a negative light. This leads her to break away from Johnny temporarily, unaware that he's working with Faust to develop a cure for her condition. She finds refuge with Chipp before finally being found by Johnny and Faust. She is later taken to the Japanese colony to meet with Kum Haehyun, an expert in ki tuning who offers further insight into her condition. It's eventually revealed that her "illness" is actually a lingering effect of the events which led to Justice's first activation, and far more sinister than initially believed. Fortunately, with the aid of Baiken, this problem is solved, and May is cured alongside all other currently-living Japanese affected by the anomaly.

A returning character for -STRIVE-. May's design has changed where she now wears a very large baggy sweatshirt, but still retains her giant anchor.

The resident pixie fighter, May is a small, aggressive melee character with big damage output and good air mobility. She excels in forcing cross-ups by attacking from right on top of the opponent. In turn, she has below average defense. She also has some set-up options in her dolphins, which were expanded on greatly in Xrd where they now serve as projectiles or movement boosts too.

Ambiguously Bi: While she's characterized by her overwhelming love for Johnny, a lot of her comments and interactions towards female fighters raise the question if she's suppressing her sexuality. Her win quotes in Xrd and -Revelator- for example often have parenthesized comments of her gushing at other girls' appearances, only to project her remarks on the ladies as being "Johnny's type" or claiming that he wouldn't go for them, even though it's her noting it.
Defeating Baiken: (Aw... Her breasts are huge...) J-Johnny likes cultured girls!
Defeating Jam: (Wow, look at those legs...) J-Johnny hates indecent women like you!
Defeating Dizzy: Hmm... tight costume...Those moves might be sexy but they won't work on Johnny!
Defeating Ramlethal: (W-Wow, she's got pretty eyes...) J-Johnny likes girls with glasses!
Anchors Away: A four foot something young girl who uses a several hundred pound anchor as a weapon.
Attack Animal: She can call on her various nautical friends for support in battle, including dolphins, otters, seals, and a big pink whale.
Badass Adorable: Despite being a sweethearted little young lady, May is a powerhouse who can swing around a giant anchor with ease and summon sea creatures to fight by her side.
Berserk Button:
- Implied to be anyone who tries to claim Johnny. Or just being attractive in general, since they might catch his eye.
- Bald people. Just being around Faust in GGXX gives her the creeps and eventually she incites a fight with him.
BFS: Her various anchors are huge, all being two times bigger than her at minimum.
Calling Your Attacks: "MAY LARIATO!"
Charge-Input Special: May has charge inputs for many of her specials that utilize her pet dolphins. "Mr. Dolphin" can travel both horizontally and vertically, giving May the ability to close in from multiple angles. Combined with a variety of projectiles and a powerful Grapple Move, May can exert a lot of pressure from all over the stage.
Clingy Jealous Girl: This has always been a part of her character when it comes to Johnny, but it really gets shown off in Johnny's arcade mode in -STRIVE-, where she gets visibly very angry after mistakenly assuming Johnny was on a date with Giovanna to the point of roughing him up a little bit. Throughout all the games, she's never quite understood Johnny's freewheeling, anti-monogamous mindset and that he isn't interested in her whatsoever, not only because she's one of his crew but also because he sees her as his adoptive daughter and protegee.
Cute Bruiser: A petite and adorable young woman who's fighting style is about brute strength and speed. Her shoes even make cute squeaky sounds wherever she walks.
Cute Clumsy Girl: Her intro in Xrd has her ride to the stage on a dolphin, only to promptly lose her balance when she lands.
Cutting the Knot: Her philosophy, as shown by the GGXX drama CD.
Dash Attack: "Mr. Dolphin" has May charge forward atop said dolphin, and is one of the most defining moves of her entire playstyle.
"Totsugeki!!"^note
Fun Personified: Always having a good time, even in the middle of a fight.
Genki Girl: She's an energetic and cheerful girl who's almost never genuinely upset.
Grapple Move: "Overhead Kiss" has May grab onto her opponent and props them up for follow-up attacks.
Gratuitous English: All her win quotes in the Japanese dub of -STRIVE- are at least partially in English.
Guest Fighter: Appears in The King of Fighters All Star.
Hopeless Suitor: As much as she'd like to be Johnny's "girl", he's got no intention of ever going down that road.
Human Cannonball: Her Instant Kill in Guilty Gear Xrd has her place the opponent inside the Mayship's cannon, which she and April proceed to fire.
Improbable Weapon User: An anchor bigger than her, along with various marine life.
Kawaiiko: Her squeaky shoes and her use of dolphins and other cute critters to attack her opponents firmly establish her as this. She even gets a unique "DESTROYED" message if you execute an Instant Kill that matches her sunny personality.
Kid Hero: She's only 16 in The Missing Link, and she's already rushed off in an attempt to break Johnny out of prison.
Likes Older Men: May prefers to crush on older men, with her biggest crush being on her guardian Johnny (who's around six years older than her). She even tells Ky, who's at least 21 years old, that he's too young for her tastes and to come back when he's older.
Megaton Punch: Her Forward + Punch move, which can be charged up. It sends the opponent to the other side of the screen and if done around about 2 or 3 times it dizzies them. It also looks really cute. She keeps it in -STRIVE-, but it's no longer chargeable.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Her petite frame has no bearing on her ability to wield a massive anchor in combat. It's implied that the latent ki abilities granted by her Japanese ancestry are what gives her super strength.
Older Than They Look: Good luck figuring that out from first glance. Averted by the time of -STRIVE-, where she finally looks more like a petite young woman.
Open Secret: She's one of the last-surviving Japanese outside of the colonies. It's an open secret among her crew and those who have known her for long enough.
Parental Abandonment: It's completely unknown where her parents are, or why she was smuggled out of the Japanese camps.
Pintsized Powerhouse: She's got a very small frame and no muscles to speak of, and yet she's able to swing an anchor around as a weapon with one hand.
Pirate Girl: One of the Jellyfish Pirates, complete with a big puffy pirate hat and an army of marine mammals at her beck and call.
Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Her "Ultimate Whiner" overdrive has May swinging her arms around so fast that it leaves trails of fists wheeling around her.
Shamu Fu: Her primary abilities involve her conjuring sea creatures to attack with. Her iconic Mr. Dolphin Dash Attack sees her summon a dolphin to charge forward with, while her Great Yamato Attack overdrive has her throw a huge whale at her opponent.
She's All Grown Up: In -STRIVE- she's gotten noticeably more full-figured, especially in the legs, making her appear more like she's actually in her 20s.
Ship Tease: Most notably she's after Johnny, and is shown hugging him in her Path 3 Story Mode ending for XX, but her Path 2 Story Mode ending from the same game shows her holding hands with Bridget and looking embarrassed. If Faust performs his Kancho move on her in Xrd, she awkwardly and loudly cries out "I'M SORRY, JOHNNY!"
Simple, yet Awesome: Once you get the hang of charge inputs, May is quite simple and straightforward to use, and boasts amazing damage output to go with it.
Single-Target Sexuality: Despite hints that she's checking out other women after defeating them, her entire character revolves around her crush on Johnny.
Spice Up the Subtitles: Accent Core Plus translates "Johnny, you idiot!" as "Johnny, you asshole!" Now, she is a pirate, but...
Spin Attack: Her "Ultimate Spinning Whirlwind" overdrive has May swing her anchor around like an iron whirlwind.
Suicide Attack: Attempts one in the drama CDs to try and avenge Johnny. It fails miserably.
Super-Strength: She's gotta have this to carry an anchor that huge.
A Twinkle in the Sky: Her Instant Kill does this in later games, as she cheerfully blasts her opponent out of a cannon into the wild blue yonder.
Unskilled, but Strong: May plays with this. She isn't particularly coordinated when fighting, as most of her attacks are just doing straightforward punches or anchor swings. One special is her just spinning her arms like a child having a temper tantrum. But her Dust launcher sees her standing on the anchor, spinning on the hook, and punching the opponent skyward.
Vibrant Orange: May is a cheerful, openhearted Sky Pirate with an abundance of love and loyalty to her captain and savior Johnny. Her outfit includes an orange coat, boots and hat.
Wrestler in All of Us: Has a command grab with an impressive animation. She can lift an anchor after all, so this is no surprise.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Her inexplicable fear of bald men. This fear/hate is so powerful that she doesn't even need to actually SEE the baldness. Her meeting Faust a.ka. "Dr. Baldhead" results in an instant fight because of this.

Millia Rage

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/millia_strive.png

Don't stop until I fall in flames.

^Xrd

^{Original Design}

"I am the wager. An assassin that was born to sorrow, an assassin destined to die... That was never predetermined! I want to exist in the future I believe in! With no doubts!"

Voiced by:
JP: Yuko Sumitomo
EN: Tara Platt
KR: Jung Hye-Won

Playable in: The Missing Link, X, XX, Xrd -SIGN-, -STRIVE-

Profile:

Height: 5'6(1/2)"

Weight: 106lbs

Gender: Female

Blood type: B

Birthplace: Russia

Date of Birth: Unknown

Hobbies: Chasing cats

Likes: Chastity

Dislikes: Zato-1, losing her hair

Character themes:
Writhe in Pain

, The Great Empress

, The Lily of Steel

, Love the Subhuman Self

Shared character themes:
Conclusion

, Still in the Dark

, Red Crossroads

, The Spider's Thread (Do you know)

(With Zato/Eddie), Existence

, Rogue Hunters

, When Life Comes

(With Assassin's Guild), The Irony of Chaste

(With Venom)

A former member of the Assassin's Guild; Millia has the 6th Forbidden Spell: Angra cast on her hair, allowing her to control it at will, much like Zato, who gained a Forbidden Beast and the ability to control darkness. She left the Guild after, in her desire to break with the group, she betrayed Zato to the authorities. Naturally, she is marked for death by the Guild for high treason. Venom especially hates her because of this, and the fact that Millia had feelings for Zato. She finally ends Zato's suffering in X by killing him, but in XX she finds out that his parasite, Eddie, has taken over his dead body. Wanting to put an end to the creature defiling Zato's corpse, she once again sets out to kill Eddie, and encounters Slayer, who sympathizes with her situation. By Accent Core + , she's finally started to mellow out and become less vindictive, simply wanting to go on living for as long as possible for the sakes of those she's killed. This means ending the guild and Eddie just so they'll stop hunting her and be out of her hair at last. Unfortunately, it is also revealed that the spell is starting to become active and sentient, having been fed by all her fighting and bloodshed, and she starts to Freak Out, thinking that she will end up just like Zato if she doesn't kill Eddie soon.^note

The Drama CD "Night of Knives" sheds light on Millia's past and the reason she betrayed Zato. Millia, Zato, and Venom were on a mission to assassinate the ruler-to-be of a certain nation. When it is revealed that the ruler is actually an infant, Millia becomes conflicted with herself and her relationship with Zato. She ultimately decides that if being an Assassin means killing even children, then it is not the life for her. And so, Millia rats out Zato to the authorities while Venom escapes, sparking his hatred of Millia and sending Zato on his path to insanity.

In Accent Core+, Millia's story branches off at her fight with Venom. If she defeats Venom normally, she will encounter Eddie, who is despondent over his ever-nearing death and feels that the key to prolonging his existence lies with taking Millia's body. Millia finally defeats Eddie for good, but as he slowly begins to die, he realizes that life is not about flesh and blood, but how that life is lived. With his last breath, Eddie implores Millia to always remember both his and Zato's existences before fading away into nothingness. However, if she defeats Venom by Time Over, the spell within her hair begins to take over her mind, prompting her to attack Baiken and Bridget without warning, killing them both. Just when Millia starts succumbing to the spell, she is stabbed from behind...by her fan from the endings of the previous games. This fan had been brainwashed by Venom to kill Millia, but had saved her, in a way, by allowing her to die as herself and not the spell's influence. With his mission accomplished, the fan's mind control is broken right as Millia dies, leaving him a traumatized, sobbing wreck.

A returning character in Xrd. Millia now has a brand new look, discarding her white and blue ensemble for an orange and black one plus a stylized ushanka

◊, probably as a Shout-Out to Maetel of Galaxy Express 999. Now seemingly on better terms with Venom and the Assassin's Guild she abandoned, she is summoned by him in regards to an offer the Senate made him: the revival of Zato-1. Suspicious, Venom assigns Millia to investigate the Conclave, which she accepts. It's eventually revealed that the Conclave have already resurrected Zato, but he has no memory of his past other than lingering traces of Millia. Millia herself is shocked, and as the events of the story transpire, the Assassin's Guild begins to move in a more heroic direction, with Millia playing a part as well. Eventually she accepts that despite her distaste for what the Guild became, it was the only place she could truly call a home, and the people she met there were the only ones she could call family, and decides she wants to reform the Guild into an organization that can do for others what Zato did for her. Her ideals are realized when Venom makes a deal with Daryl, one of the three kings of Illyria, to make the Guild's history (both good and bad) public knowledge and integrate it into the Illyrian military as part of their intelligence division.

In -STRIVE-, Millia again sports an updated design, wearing an even larger winter coat and an ushanka hat, fitting for her new position as one of the head figures of Illyria's intelligence department under King Daryl. She and Zato are called upon to investigate the events surrounding I-No and the mysterious man known as Happy Chaos.

Gameplay-wise, Millia is a high-speed character centered around punishing callous opponents. She is one of most fragile characters in the series, but she trades that for impressive mobility options, nearly unmatched mix-up game, and deadly okizeme setups to ensure that her opponent pays dearly for every mistake and knockdown.

Action Girl: A former assassin who uses her Prehensile Hair as a weapon in combat.
Amicable Exes: Implied; it's hinted that Millia and Zato's relationship did in fact get intimate at some point before Missing Link. Though between Zato's controlling tendencies and Millia betraying their guild, things were a bit complicated. After his death and revival though, with new memories in place of his old ones, the two are able to maintain a more professional and amicable partnership.
The Atoner: Her Image Song in -STRIVE-, "Love the Subhuman Self", describes her desire to move past her former life as an assassin implanted with a forbidden spell.
Broken Bird: Millia is an orphan and was coerced by her asshole ex-boyfriend to assassinate people. After leaving the organization, she finds it hard to form any relationships.
Celibate Hero: Because of her cynicism about men, she doesn't pursue romance anymore.
Compressed Hair: Her hair naturally falls to her ankles while tied up, but she also uses it as a weapon, and it takes huge and ridiculous shapes. Also, in one winning pose, she takes off her ponytail and her hair flops to the ground, stretching to about two feet from her. This is due to a forbidden spell permanently bonded to her hair which has a high-end Healing Factor.
Deal with the Devil: Cast the Sixth Forbidden Spell onto herself, giving her the ability to control her hair. Unlike Zato, it's unknown what she had to give up in exchange (though it's implied to have been her womb, or at least her ability to bear children).
Defector from Decadence: She left the Assassin's Guild due to the lingering guilt she felt from the murders she committed and their cruel ways.
Difficult, but Awesome: Millia's poor durability and relatively low damage require the player to master her impressive mobility, and learn exactly when to strike at the openings their opponents may leave. It's even more pronounced in -STRIVE-, where her regular attacks are actually quite slow on startup and unsafe on block. Played poorly, Millia will get rushed down and lose almost all, if not all of her health before she can retaliate, but when mastered, Millia can damn near indefinitely lock down her opponent without giving them a chance to breathe.
Does Not Like Men: Downplayed: She's wary of men (and justifiably so, given her backstory) but doesn't necessarily hate them.
Expressive Hair: Millia's hair takes this to an extreme, as it's a living bioweapon.
Fanservice Pack: Curiously inverted: she seems to wear more clothes across each entry of the series. In The Missing Link she only wore a Leotard of Power, in X and XX she changed it to an overgrown shirt that goes down to her thighs, in Xrd she started wearing tights to cover up her legs, and in -STRIVE- she put on a winter coat on top of it all.
Fragile Speedster: She's fast, agile, but not too hard to defeat if enough hits are landed on her.
Friend to All Children: Underneath her cold exterior she's actually a kind person, especially to children. This is most likely due to her having been an orphan.
Flower Motifs: Easter Lilies. She is also called The Lily of Steel in Xrd.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Zig-Zagged. She's blonde, but was trained as an assassin and performed more than a few kills. She was coerced into it rather than becoming a professional killer by choice, though, and she feels great guilt over it, so much that she defected from the Assassin's Guild. Furthermore, underneath her coldness she's a kind person, being friendly to children and cats.
Hair Wings: Her hair takes the form of angel wings, during one of her EX drives, where she lifts vertically off the ground and dives at the opponent.
Hitman with a Heart: She was raised as an assassin first and foremost, but nonetheless is deeply compassionate for others and doesn't take pride in ending lives.
I Broke a Nail: She hates losing any part of her hair. Since her weapon of choice is her Prehensile Hair, her worry is justified.
If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: What she fears of herself if she doesn't kill Eddie soon.
Impossible Hourglass Figure: Her -STRIVE- design, in spades.
Improbable Weapon User: Her hair, powered by the forbidden spell.
Internal Reformist: in Millia's Arcade Mode ending in -REVELATOR-, she comes to realize that despite the trauma she suffered from being a member of the Assassins' Guild, it was still the one place she could truly call "home", since she met the people who would become her True Companions (Zato, Venom, and Slayer). With that in mind, she decides to become the new leader of the Guild.
Kick Them While They Are Down: Her moveset is designed around maximizing the benefits from Okizeme and taking advantage of a downed opponent.
Kindhearted Cat Lover: Her hobby is playing with cats.
Lady of War: She has a quiet and completely non-brazen demeanor, and her fighting style reflects that. Her animate golden hair flows gracefully, tends to incorporate flower and wing motifs into its strikes, plus it leaves the rest of her body free to contribute to the trope with dance-like movements.
Leg Focus: Some of the camera angles put a greater emphasis on her legs.
Leotard of Power: As shown in the artbooks, she wears a leotard under her blouse. By Xrd, she wears it alongside tights.
Magic Hair: She practiced in the art of Hi-Deigokutsuipou, or the "Sixth Forbidden Spell", which gave her the power to control the movement as well as alter the length and shape of her hair at will.
Ms. Fanservice: Millia is a stunningly beautiful woman with a sexy figure, which is accentuated and emphasized by her outfits.
Mythology Gag: Part of her idle animation for Xrd has her reenact her idle animation from the earlier games.
Navel Outline: Her -STRIVE- model makes use of this trope, although it's not as clear in her official artwork. Even by the trope's standards, she stands out as a very bizarre example, as her baggy, loose fitting coat should make such a thing impossible.
Parental Abandonment: She lost both her parents at a young age, likely in the Crusades.
Prehensile Hair: She has this due to infusing her hair with the Sixth Hi-Deigokutsuipou, allowing her to change its shape and size. Its her weapon in combat, and able to turn into a sword, flowers, and even a unicorn. Her hair can even allow her to fly by turning into wings.
Proper Lady: Has shades of this with her elegance, femininity, and lady-like manner.
Proper Tights with a Skirt: On some of her alternate palettes in the XX games, eventually gaining them by default in her Xrd getup.
Rapid Hair Growth: Due to her hair being alive and prehensile. Some of her attacks make her hair grow by necessity.
The Rival: Zato-ONE, and later Eddie. Subverted with Venom, who she sees as more of a jealous little boy than an actual threat.
Sensual Slavs: She's from Russia, and her outfits invoke this, although she herself doesn't have the personality of one.
Ship Tease: All the subtext about her and Zato is quite rife within their stories. It's rumored that she may have lost her virginity to him.
Signature Headgear: Starting with Xrd, she gains an ushanka as part of her attire and keeps wearing it in -STRIVE-.
Spam Attack: Lust Shaker in the previous games was this, letting her use it by simply mashing the Slash button. Xrd and -STRIVE- would eventually Nerf it by making it a command special and reducing the damage it deals.
Stockholm Syndrome: She and Venom both developed strong feelings towards Zato, despite the fact he was an evil bastard who raised them into assassins.
Straw Feminist: Subverted. Millia does not intentionally insult people, it's just that she has a lot of issues regarding men overall due to her trauma. She warms up to her Fanboy in one ending.
Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Type 1. Despite being cold and distant, she does occasionally show there's a nice person underneath it all.
Too Kinky to Torture: She's one of the few people who doesn't respond to Faust's Ass Shove attack with pain or awkwardness. She lets out a moan instead, which may be Fridge Brilliance as she may be venting out some frustration.
Tyke-Bomb: Reconstructed. Since childhood she was trained as an assassin but her love for children and her determination to find a new life drove her to go against the organization. The information she gave to the police force against the Assassins' Guild proves to be useful.
Wouldn't Hurt a Child: She has a deep affection towards children, and Zato being more than happy to take up a hit put on a toddler was what drove her to initially betray the Guild.

Zato-1 and Eddie

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zato_guilty_gear_strive.png

I once had some sweet memories. Its worth remains, all the same...

^Xrd

"You have awakened the anger of a dead man, child. I will not hesitate to erase you from this world."

"THERE'S NO DECENT COMPETITION FOR ME LATELY. IT WAS A WASTE OF TIME FIGHTING YOU."

Zato voiced by:
JP: Kaneto Shiozawa (GG - GGX), Takehito Koyasu (Xrd -SIGN- onward)
EN: Matthew Mercer
KR: Um Sang Hyun

Eddie voiced by:
JP: Takehito Koyasu
EN: Derek Stephen Prince (Xrd -SIGN-), Matthew Mercer (-STRIVE-)
KR: Um Sang Hyun

Playable in: The Missing Link, X, XX, Xrd -SIGN-, -STRIVE-

Profile:

Height: 5'11"

Weight: 150lbs

Gender: Male

Blood type: A

Birthplace: Spain

Date of Birth: January 28th

Hobbies: Attempting to understand the language of flowers

Likes: Millia Rage

Dislikes: Women

Character themes:
Black Soul

, Feel A Fear

, Dementia

, Black Blank blah-blah-blah

, Let Me Carve Your Way

Shared character themes:
Conclusion

, Still in the Dark

, Red Crossroads

, The Spider's Thread (Do you know)

(With Millia), Existence

, Rogue Hunters

, When Life Comes

(With Assassin's Guild), Push A Bush

(With Testament)

Zato-1 was once a bottom-feeder in the Assassins' Guild. To fulfill his ambitions, he made a contract with a forbidden beast at the cost of his eyesight. With his new powers of shadow manipulation, he quickly rose in the ranks and became the Guild's leader, taking Millia and Venom under his wing. When Millia left him, he sent out assassins to bring her back, but she betrayed him further by turning him in to the authorities.

Unfortunately for him, the forbidden beasts were called forbidden for a good reason. The beast that Zato had, now having become sentient and calling itself Eddie, slowly began to consume his mind, body, and soul. The beasts are actually parasites that require a body to live. Zato was eventually driven mad by Eddie, and in X, attacks Millia one final time, but is killed by her.

With Zato now dead, Eddie is now able to fully control his new body, but because Zato is dead it means that the body will soon rot and decay. Eddie spends XX and Accent Core desperately trying to find a new host body, all the while pondering the meaning of his existence. In Accent Core it's revealed that deep down, Eddie hates that his existence is cursed to be a short one without a living host, and like any living creature all he really wants is for someone, anyone, to remember that he existed when his time finally comes. On his last legs, he fatefully runs into Millia, doing battle with her one more time before he finally starts to fade away. Before he finally dies and leaves Zato's corpse behind, Millia assures him that she will remember his existence, not just as merely Zato's shadow but as his own being with his own will.

A returning character in Xrd... as Zato-1 instead of Eddie, to the surprise of many. Zato's soul is pulled back from limbo by the Senate, but when he is resurrected, he is completely apathetic and unresponsive, which leads the Senate to lock him in a dimensional prison until he is ready to cooperate. The only thoughts that make him feel anything are those of Millia, but he doesn't know why, so he escapes in order to find her. The two eventually reunite, and Zato realizes that Millia is what gives his life purpose. Even if he cannot remember the man he used to be, or the horrible sins he committed in the past, one thing is certain: his love for Millia was real, and now that he's been given a second chance at life, he declares his devotion to protecting her. However, it turns out that his resurrection is a prototype process for what the Conclave has planned, and was originally Dr. Baldhead's technique before the Conclave decided to steal it for themselves. As such, they hired Zato to discredit the good doctor by assassinating one of his patients - the little girl whose death would set him on the path to becoming a serial killer. With Zato's aid alongside the rest of the reformed Assassins Guild, the Conclave's plans are foiled and the true mastermind behind them is defeated afterward.

Returning in -STRIVE-, Zato now serves alongside Millia as part of Illyria's intelligence department, consisting of the reformed and newly-integrated Assassins Guild, having been called upon to investigate I-No and the mysterious man known as Happy Chaos.

Gameplay-wise, the original incarnation of Zato in Missing Link was an average, evasive zoning character that harasses opponents with his lengthy pokes, before X turned Zato into the archetype-defining puppeteer character he is today; He can summon his ground-based shadow Eddie, who works in tandem with Zato-1 to overcome their opponent's defense with a wide range of mix-up and unblockables, making them extremely dangerous on the offensive. However, controlling the separate shadow entity adds a new degree of complexity to the player's inputs in the form of utilizing negative edging, the period of time in which an input is released from being held. This high-execution requirement coupled with the fact that Zato-1's abilities are massively limited if Eddie is taken out of the fight, make him a high-risk, but very high-reward character if players are able to master his unique fighting style.

Tropes associated with Zato-1:

Adaptive Armor: Eddie can form a living skin that surrounds Zato's body when needed.
Animal Motifs: He appears to have a shark motif. Eddie's humanoid forms include one with a shark-like head, and some of his attacks have him summon shark-shaped shadows.
Attack Reflector: His Drunkard Shade is this; being able to reflect projectiles and knock away the opponent if they're too close.
Beauty Is Bad: Beautiful he may be, he's not very heroic. Not even Millia can decide whether she loved him, hated him, or just loved to hate him.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Gouging his eyes out clearly hasn't done much to diminish his looks.
Blessed with Suck: He manipulates darkness while being overtaken by darkness.
Blindfolded Vision: Isn't impaired by his blindness one bit. Perhaps Eddie sees for him?
Bondage Is Bad: His outfit flirts with the look, particularly with the blindfold and choker. Strive downplays this by giving it a more armored, militaristic look.
Casting a Shadow: He has the power to manipulate shadows to attack, forming dark constructs or sneaking around in his own shadow.
Casts No Shadow: Technically he never casts any normal shadows.
The Charmer: Back when he was the leader of the assassins.
Combo Platter Powers: Eddie grants Zato a whole array of seemingly unrelated powers.
Confusion Fu: Zato/Eddie's team pressure is a confusing and scary thing even to high-level players. The best strategy against him is to either not allow the summoning at all or to kill Eddie as fast as possible, or else you're stuck dealing with a perpetual loop of 50/50 mixups.
Cultured Badass: Even more so than Slayer: he always stays polite and well-mannered both inside and outside combat, like some sort of Victorian nobleman and has an old fashioned bow for one of his Respect animations, as well as using moves literally straight from a ballet.
Dashing Hispanic: He hails from Spain, and is generally portrayed as a Pretty Boy.
Deal with the Devil: His contract with Eddie not only made him blind, but began to slowly kill him.
Difficult, but Awesome: The series' prime example, and one of the most definitive examples in all of fighting games. A good Zato player can utterly smother their opponents with layer upon layer of endless pressure and mixups until they finally crack. Getting good with Zato, however, requires understanding the concept of "negative edge" inputs, where you hold down a specific button to buffer an attack with Eddie, then release it to initiate Eddie's attack. Mastering this type of input requires a very different, very difficult style of execution that can take months or even years to develop.
The Door Slams You: Weaponized with his teleports.
Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Look at his outfit and ask yourself if it feels like he's wearing nothin' at all, nothin' at all, nothin' at all! Venom even thinks this in canon, which is entirely possible considering his ability to manipulate shadows.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Went from a low-ranking member unable to advance up the ranks under his own power to the leader of the Guild.
Gameplay and Story Integration: Zato was originally a no name Assassin who desired to be the leader of the guild. So he used a forbidden spell to gain control of his shadow and propelled himself to the leader of said guild. In gameplay it's commonly stated that without Eddie he's the worst character in the game. With Eddie, he's the best.
Glass Cannon: Has among the best offense in the series, but has poor defense and has the same amount of health as Bridget, the series' resident Joke Character.
Handicapped Badass: He's blind because he traded his eyesight for the ability to control his shadow. That doesn't stop him from kicking ass, mostly because of that shadow.
He-Man Woman Hater: Implied by his bio, which states that he dislikes women. This may have been influenced by Millia's betrayal, since she was the only woman he ever trusted (though he no longer dislikes her by the time of Xrd).
Incompatible Orientation: Zato is unlikely to reciprocate Venom's undying love and dedication for him due to his own love for Millia, especially post-resurrection due to Millia being the only person he feels any lingering emotions for.
Inconsistent Spelling: Zato has been called both "Zato-1" (as in "Zato" and the numeral "1") and "Zato-ONE" (as in the actual spelled-out word "One") at different points in time. This is made more confusing in that his name is a pun that totally doesn't work at all in English involving a play on the Japanese word for "one", "ichi".
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Parts ways with Millia at the end of the Night of Knives drama CD due to this. Because of the Guild's rules about traitors and the first game, this does not last. In -STRIVE- he's accepted that Millia will never love him after all the sins he's committed, so he settles for serving under her in the new Assassin's Guild and letting her forge her own path out of his shadow (pun not intended).
Irony: He's extremely obsessed with Millia though he's the only one who can't see how beautiful she is.
Laughing Mad: Slips into this on occasion. And it is scary.
- And with Takehito Koyasu behind it from XX onward, it's even scarier.
Long-Range Fighter: It is possible to play him this way with the help of Eddie's long-ranged normals and drill projectiles.
Lovecraftian Superpower: The way he got it and the power itself symbolizes a symbiosis and control over a Shoggoth-like bioweapon.
Love Triangle: Venom pined for Zato, Zato and Millia had a mutual liking-each-other thing going on, but Zato was a Jerkass, so Millia left, or maybe she still has a soft-spot for him and then there's also Millia's stalker and...
Manipulative Bastard: He charmed Millia and Venom into being loyal to him and transformed the Guild from an organization that desires justice into a mercenary-like group that accepted any dirty jobs.
Meaningful Appearance: It makes sense giving a blindfolded man powers based around darkness. After all, all he can see is darkness.
Meaningful Name: He is named after a simple language mixture of Japan's most famous fictional blind warrior: Zatoichi, taking ”ichi” out and replacing it with the english word "one".
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Rather than an air dash like other fighters, Zato instead grows wings and achieves flight for a few seconds, being able to freely steer himself. It gives him a unique air-game that changes the fundamentals of the series' aerial combat.
Not Himself: From X onwards, as his dead body is inhabited solely by Eddie. This is no longer the case by Xrd once he's revived, though he lacks emotions and is a shadow of his former cruel, power-hungry self.
Not So Stoic:
- In the original game and sequel Zato was shown as a bitter, power hungry and ruthless maniac who then fell into complete desperation upon realizing that Eddie was going to enslave him.
- He remains stoic in the face of most Instant Kills and Overdrive Attacks, but Faust's special moves always get a reaction out of him.
Our Mages Are Different: Technically, Zato is yet another fighter in a fighting game and specifically an assassin according to ingame lore, but on practice, in contrast to every other assassin in the series, he is more of a wizard who never really fights with his fists instead completely relying on magic powers. Despite his appearance, in action he looks like your typical spellcaster who most of the time uses Magical Gesture's, chanting and what's not.
Partial Transformation: He can use Eddie to turn individual limbs into shadow weapons like blades.
Pretty Boy: Before his sight loss. And after. He is so attractive that during a party in Night of Knives, an aristocrat lady insists that he dance with her, remaining completely undeterred when he mentions his blindness.
Pulling Themselves Together: Instead of just simply getting up after knock-down, he prefers to transform his whole body into a shadow and then just reshape himself in his idle stance, in an obvious T-1000 homage.
Puppet Fighter: Pressing any button lets Zato attack, while Eddie, when active, will attack when you release the button, leading to some really weird inputs being required to use him effectively. He was one of the first examples of this archetype, and he's generally considered to be the Trope Codifier.
Punny Name: Zato-1's name, when read in Japanese, is Zato-Ichi. You know, like the blind swordsman.
Psycho Ex-Boyfriend: He sent assassins after Millia when she left him, though Night of Knives implies that it was less out of personal anger and more due to the Assassin's Guild's rule about traitors.
Real Life Writes the Plot: Zato died because Kaneto Shiozawa died.
The Rival: Acts as this to Millia Rage after she betrays the Assassins' Guild, especially before his first death.
Rubber Man: Sort of - he can stretch out his shadow constructs to attack from a long range.
Sensual Spandex: A Rare Male Example, Zato is always clad in a form-fitting black bodysuit no matter the situation (though he does usually wear a slick black longcoat over it when he isn't fighting).
Shadow Walker: "Break the Law" lets Zato submerge himself in his shadow and move around the stage while completely immune to being struck.
The Stoic: Was like this according to Slayer before he went crazy from Millia's betrayal. Became even more stoic after resurrection due to a general lack of emotions.
Summon Magic: Can summon Eddie as long as he isn't on cooldown. This is the staple of Zato's gameplan since he's very dangerous when paired with it, but quite weak on his own.
This Is a Drill: "Invite Hell" lets Zato spawn shadow drills across the stage, allowing him to control space whenever Eddie is unavailable.
Video Game Flight: He can temporarily glide with Eddie's wings with his jumps and air dashes, which serve as his main escape and mix-up tools.
Would Hurt a Child:
- The drama CD shows that he readily agreed to assassinate a two year-old king, with Millia's life as a wager. This was the last straw for Millia herself, causing her to defect from the Guild.
- Zato is responsible for murdering Dr Baldhead's patient (a frail little girl) during a botched assassination attempt on the doctor, thus causing Baldhead's descent into insanity.

Tropes associated with Eddie himself:

Animorphism: His main power.
Art Evolution: Eddie's design undergoes a pretty heavy shift in -STRIVE-, going from a solid and muscular shark-like humanoid to a more abstract and spindly shadow creature akin to the The Babadook. His transformations become a lot more animalistic and he's now almost always sporting a toothy Slasher Smile.
Big Ball of Violence: Damned Fang in -STRIVE- has Eddie surround the enemy in one made of shadow demon sharks.
Blob Monster: Takes the form an undulating mass of black shadow that shapeshifts into all sorts of forms and devours enemies.
Cultured Badass: Downplayed example, but he'll bow alongside Zato for his respect animation. In -STRIVE- he'll even tip a shadowy top hat while doing so.
Dead Person Impersonation: He uses Zato-1's corpse as a host body. As Zato's corpse is starting to decay and become unsuitable for Eddie, the Shadow Beast starts searching for a new host in fear of dying himself.
Demoted to Extra: In Xrd. He's still present but with Zato revived he has barely any lines in the story mode and the few he has are mostly comic relief.
Hidden Depths: Before Xrd, Eddie is portrayed as a psychotic, arrogant being who toys with and mocks his opponents while trying to find a suitable new host body. As the games go on, however, it's shown that he only acts this way because he's really a lonely, scared creature who hates that he's cursed with such a limited lifespan, and he just wants for someone to remember that he existed before he dies.
Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Even to the point of wanting to taunt people just to be remembered.
Difficult, but Awesome: He's still as difficult to use as usual, with or without Zato alive, but there's a reason why multiple games have an Eddie Tier at the tip top.
Living Shadow: He takes the form of a dark mass that can creep on the ground like a shadow.
Psychopathic Manchild: Played straight pre-Xrd, as his own consciousness has essentially just barely been born after Zato's death. In comparison to Zato, Eddie is much more emotionally unstable and enjoys toying with and mocking his opponents. After his and Zato's revival, however, the psychopath part of him ends up mellowing out, though he still retains his childish personality as a Shapeshifting Trickster.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: To Venom in his 2nd ending in XX's Story Mode, mocking him for being such a loyal "dog" for Zato.
Shapeshifter Default Form: A humanoid gargoyle when not fighting. -STRIVE- reimagines him as a mostly shapeless creature with spindly arms and rows of teeth.
Shapeshifter Weapon: Can transform his shadow-like body in myriad forms.
The Symbiote: A weapon bonded to to Zato that needs his body to continue existing in our world.
Tragic Villain: Though his entire character in X and XX mostly involves him antagonizing various characters, trying to take over their bodies and generally being an asshole, he's only doing it because he's a scared, lonely creature desperately trying to stay alive and grappling with the knowledge that he was made to be a disposable weapon.
Transformation Horror: Both he and Zato have a penchant for creating various creatures during their attacks (Dark Sentinel, stretched shark, etc.)
That Man Is Dead: He constantly has to remind people in XX that Zato, the man whose body he's puppeting, is dead.
You Don't Look Like You: Eddie's depiction has changed drastically with every installment. He's gone from looking like an amorphous, shadowy blob in Missing Link, to a Gargoyle in XX, to an demonic/alien-esque creature in -SIGN-, to an almost Babadook-like monster in -STRIVE-.
Your Days Are Numbered: His plotline in the XX games is him desperately trying to prolong his life by finding a new host to take over because of how afraid of dying he is. Depending on which ending he gets, he can either (non-canonically) die after trying to take over Millia or somehow become free from needing a host and become an immortal Eldritch Abomination (which is also of dubious canonicity).
Voluntary Shapeshifting: It's his entire niche.

Tropes associated with Zato and Eddie's later revival:

Amnesiac Lover: Averted, one of the few things he remembers when he comes back in Xrd are his feelings for Millia.
Back from the Dead: Was resurrected by the Conclave in Xrd. Turns out he was merely a test subject for the art of resurrection, in preparation for reviving Justice. Despite the fact that he's behaving a bit strangely post-resurrection, it almost seems come and go of its own volition. When he's not acting odd he shows awareness that he was dead before.
- According to Eddie, he's an Empty Shell.
Badass Longcoat: Materializes one in his victory animation in Xrd, presumably using Eddie.
Berserk Button: Xrd makes it clear that hurting Millia will set him off.
Zato: [To Bedman] To be frank, your mission does not concern me. But you have hurt the one thing that matters to me... Millia. You've awoken the anger of a dead man, child, and I will not hesitate to erase you from this world.
Came Back Wrong: Played with. When he's revived, the trauma of it leaves him emotionally hollow and speaking mostly in nonsensical fragments. The other assassins and even Eddie admit there is something terribly wrong with him. Then it eventually turns into a rare inversion, where Zato realizes the only thing that makes him want to keep going is his feelings for Millia, causing a complete Heel–Face Turn and a major Took a Level in Kindness compared to how he was before he died.
Dark Is Not Evil: He becomes this post-resurrection, in complete contrast to his past self.
Declaration of Protection: Apparently, he wants to protect Millia. Only time will tell if his feelings are in a good light or not.
Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: In Xrd, being resurrected and spending a lengthy amount of time in the dimensional prison has left him empty on the inside, and he only does anything because of lingering feelings for Millia.
Face Death with Dignity: When Faust encounters Zato in Xrd, the usually kind doctor is driven furious at encountering the man who ruined his life and drove him insane; Zato willingly accepts that Faust has every right to kill him then and there. Thankfully, Faust spares the assassin's life.
He Knows Too Much: Bedman believes this and thinks his elimination is a top priority.
He's Back!: He makes a triumphant return in Xrd, indicated by the character being listed once more as "Zato-One" instead of "Eddie".
Heel–Face Turn: In Xrd, after coming back to life, he works to thwart Ramlethal since if she wipes out humanity, Millia would be killed, and his feelings for her are what is keeping him going. It even gets him to the point that he willingly cooperates with Zepp and revealing Sol and Ky more details about the return of Justice.
Irony: The resurrection technique that he was hired to protect (via assassinating Baldhead's patient) would later be tested on him as an experiment.
Nice Guy: While relatively emotionless after his resurrection, Zato is a lot kinder and more polite towards everyone, especially Millia.
No-Sell: He is the only character in Xrd who immediately understands Bedman's abilities and how to counter them. It's one of the few moments in the story in which Bedman looks scared.
Nerves of Steel: Has these thanks to losing his emotions post-resurrection. He's also rather calm whenever he's the victim of an Instant Kill.
Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: What Zato says to Faust upon meeting him shortly after his resurrection, recognizing the heinousness of the sins he committed against the good doctor and his patient. His only request is that he be given some time to try and halt the Conclave's plans to bring about the World of Absolution.
Faust: To be quite frank...I confess I feel a powerful urge to slaughter you, as the man responsible for ruining my life.
Zato: All too understandable. Please, feel free. [...] Kill me if you wish. You have every right to... And so, I am sorry to ask, but could you perhaps give me some time before you do?
Same Character, But Different: Having lost all memory of the utter bastard he used to be as well as the emotions and ambitions that led to his insanity, Zato becomes the complete opposite of who he once was and is now driven by his desire to give his comrades, as well as the Guild he ended up corrupting, a better future.
Took a Level in Kindness: After being resurrected, he became less bloodthirsty and more of a good guy: his victory pose shows him offering a hand to help his defeated opponent up, and his victory quotes against some opponents are rather polite.
What Is This Feeling?: When I-No becomes a goddess, it causes everyone in the world to cry, including Zato.
Wistful Amnesia: His Image Song in -STRIVE- describes his memory loss post-revival in this manner. Deep down, he secretly longs to regain the full memories of Millia that he once had, but they are now merely fragments that are also the only thing driving him forward.
You Don't Look Like You: While Zato's -STRIVE- design is reminiscent of his previous one, Eddie looks almost completely different. Instead of a wedge-headed gargoyle, his Shapeshifter Default Form has changed to an amorphous demon creature with a wide maw filled with teeth.

Potemkin

I take the role of a silly clown, but I won't turn my back on life.

^Xrd

^Original

"Understood, Mr. President."

Voiced by:
JP: Hideyuki Anbe (GG), Takashi Kondo (X onward)
EN: Kirk Thornton (Xrd -SIGN-), Armen Taylor (-STRIVE-)
KR: Si Young-Jun

Playable in: The Missing Link, X, XX, Xrd -SIGN-, -STRIVE-

Profile:

Height: 8'5"

Weight: 2672lbs

Gender: Male

Blood type: O

Birthplace: Zepp

Date of Birth: October 18th

Hobbies: Art

Likes: Indestructible pencil cases

Dislikes: Pencils that snap under four tonnes of weight

Character themes:
In Slave's Glory

, Burly Heart

, Megatona Furioso

, Engage

, Armor-clad Faith

Shared character theme:
Riches In Me

(With Slayer)

Potemkin was once a slave of Zepp, a floating totalitarian country. He enters the first Sacred Knight Tournament by the orders of his superior, Gabriel. When he returned from the tournament, he joined Gabriel and La Résistance in overthrowing the corrupt political regime and ended the slavery of their fellow countrymen. He is now the most famous and recognizable member of Gabriel's elite Presidential Guard, working as both a loyal bodyguard to his president and a special agent who carries out missions of great importance to Zepp.

By Xrd, Potemkin's design has been completely changed. He no longer wears his slave collar, and is clad in full soldier armor from head to toe. Over the years, Potemkin was promoted to a Secret Military Diplomat for Zepp, and has been sent to investigate Ramlethal Valentine's appearance.

He returns in -STRIVE- in a minor albeit significant role in the Story Mode, piloting a specialized Zeppian air mech custom-built to his proportions with which he employs the Naglfar Maneuver, creating a magical barrier to halt the Tír na nÓg-activated White House's advance toward the Mexican border.

Potemkin is the Mighty Glacier grappler of the series. He lacks any forward dash, either in the air or on the ground, severely limiting his mobility. On the other hand, his normal attacks are deceptively far-reaching for a melee combatant, and hit very hard. And his defense modifier is the best among all characters, meaning he can take as much punishment as he gives. Being a grappler, he relies on his fast command grabs, with his other specials being designed to close the distance between him and the opponent, making up for his lack of speed. He's capable of both punishing opponents with his sheer power and playing like a traditional grappler.

Ambiguously Brown: Has a Russian name and was born in the USSR-inspired nation of Zepp, but his dark skin-tone and Russia itself still existing (evidenced by Millia's backstory) muddles things. It's also never specified which country (or countries) went on to form Zepp itself, so his ancestry's up in the air. Xrd's official timeline notes the floating continent that became Zepp was financed and constructed in India, which might hint at Potemkin having Indian ancestry. -STRIVE- adds some further evidence to this^note.
Anti-Air: "Heat Knuckle" is a Grapple Move that only works on airborne opponents; Potemkin will grab them and unload a whole clip of ammunitions into them before blasting them away.
Anti-Frustration Features: In Guilty Gear, running and dashing will fill the tension meter to encourage and reward aggressive play. Potemkin is the series staple Mighty Glacier so he can do neither of these in any game he appears in. To alleviate this problem, he generally gets more meter per attack whether or not it lands, he builds meter while approaching the opponent, and blocking attacks just before they hit you gives him a significant amount of meter, which allows him to spend meter as liberally as the other members.
Arm Cannon: His gauntlets seem to have been upgraded with these in Guilty Gear -STRIVE-. The wrists can unfurl to fire a heavy shot from a short distance or unload a revolver-style clip of Pile Bunker spikes on a grappled foe.
Attack Reflector: "F.D.B." has Potemkin simply flick his index finger forward with enough force that it sends his opponents' projectiles flying back.
Bare-Fisted Monk: On the subject of his fighting style. He doesn't need weapons so pressing a weapon attack button triggers a strong punch or kick. This gets lessened in -STRIVE-, where his hands have been augmented with cybernetic weaponry; he's still punching or kicking, but some of the moves are augmented by pile bunkers or fire rounds.
Beware the Nice Ones: Potemkin is normally a pacifistic, amicable and diplomatic person, but if someone or something dares to threaten President Gabriel or the safety and sovereignty of Zepp, he will unleash his full combat prowess until the threat has been neutralized.
The Big Guy: By far the most physically imposing member of the entire cast, only outdone (in height) by Faust, who is typically squatting anyway to level him off with other characters. His moveset, thus, revolves primarily around him using his sheer mass as a weapon, delivering swift blows with devastating strength; and utilizing inescapable grabs like Potemkin Buster, where he utilizes gravity to crush his opponents on his back.
Bodyguarding a Badass: President Gabriel is more than capable of defending himself, but Potemkin remains part of his elite guard regardless.
Call-Back: His Xrd design has "Burly Heart", the name of his XX theme, etched into various places on his armor.
Close-Range Combatant: The only thing stopping him from being this entirely is that he has a handful of abilities designed to help him get close in the first place, but otherwise he has to be very near his opponent in order to use the majority of his moves.
The Comically Serious: Potemkin is so fanatically devoted to his job and country that quite a bit of humor is extracted from him trying to even interact with wackier characters like Faust and Axl in an extremely formal and militaristic manner.
Crippling Overspecialization: Potemkin has zero ranged attacks, is very slow and cannot dash normally to compensate for the ludicrous amounts of damage that he's capable of at close range. This means most of his moves are built around him getting in close when his enemy least expects it or waiting for his opponent to make a mistake so that he can capitalize on it. Despite this, it means he can still get wrecked by zoners like Axl and Zato who can properly stay out of his range while continuing to send out attacks.
Cyborg: By Guilty Gear -STRIVE- he's definitely one of these. His chest bolts can now extend outward during certain attacks, while his gauntlets look more like they're actually built into his arms.
Damn You, Muscle Memory!: In every game up until XX, his forward kick attack is a short-range headbutt. Xrd changes it to be a sliding shoulder bash attack with a slight delay. Since both moves have very intrinsically different uses, Potemkin players swapping games may inadvertently pull out the wrong move by mistake.
Dash Attack:
- To compensate for his lack of a normal dash, "Hammer Fall" has Potemkin charge forward and then crash his knuckles together for damage, which is great for closing the distance with his opponent or finishing a combo after they get knocked out of reach. He also some very generous super armor while the move is active, and it can be cancelled out of by pressing the Punch button to throw off his opponent.
- In XX he has a follow-up attack he can do after Giganter called Gigantic Bullet, where he fills both of his fists with fireballs and lurches forward for an explosive double-fisted punch. Not only does it naturally chain off of the momentary stun that Giganter provides for some serious damage, but it can also be used to close the gap after a whiffed Giganter or even catch a retreating player who managed to dodge the intial Giganter projectile.
Demoted to Extra:
- In Xrd, Potemkin is reduced to just having one scene and two lines, interrogating Bedman after President Gabriel subdued him.
- In -STRIVE-, he only gets a short conversation with Gabriel and then a single scene in which he helps slow down the White House using a special Zeppian aircraft.
Determinator: If Gabriel tells him to do something, he'll see it done, no matter what. His personal philosophy involves risking your life for the ones you love, and several of his intro quotes have him saying something like "Come on, put your life on the line!"
Difficult, but Awesome: The Heavenly Potemkin Buster. Proper conditioning and combo set-ups are required to make use of its full potential, and it only connects if his opponent is jumping directly towards him, something that most savvy players know about and try to avoid, making its use very situational. However, landing one can turn the tides heavily in Potemkin's favor, as it's one of the hardest-hitting moves in Guilty Gear history, often capable of reducing entire health bars to dust.
Dramatic Gun Cock: One of his XX round victory animations is to eject a bunch of spent shells from one of his gauntlet weapons.
Explosive Leash: In the first Guilty Gear, his Slave Collar has an explosive in it to prevent him from disobeying orders and rebelling against his Zepp masters. The explosive gets deactivated in his ending, but he keeps wearing the collar itself as a reminder of his origins and as a self-imposed power limiter.
Finger Poke of Doom: "F.D.B." is merely Potemkin flicking his index finger and thumb, but it's strong enough to do respectable damage and reflect high-speed projectiles. Remember, Potemkin canonically weighs over a ton, so him moving even the slightest bit is enough to put serious force behind an attack.
Foe-Tossing Charge: Season 3 of -STRIVE- gives Potemkin a move called Heat Tackle, which allows him to rocket forward into the air using his gauntlets and tumble down next to or behind his opponent. Not only is this move a fantastic Anti-Air for catching jumping opponents, but because Potemkin travels a sizable distance with it and it has super armor, he can use it as an alternative mobility tool to Hammer Fall and Mega Fist. Its only downsides are that it has extremely long wind-up and recovery, meaning an opponent who predicts that Potemkin is going to use it can get a guaranteed punish on him.
Genius Bruiser: He is a member of Gabriel's elite presidential guard for a reason; Potemkin is basically a combination of a one-man Spec-Ops team, diplomat, and private investigator.
Gentle Giant: Despite his fearsome strength and intimidating size, he's a pretty kind guy with a passion for art and a genuine love for his country, and he only ever engages in combat when the situation would require it or when Zepp is threatened by outside forces.
Grapple Move: The iconic " Potemkin Buster", in which he grabs his opponent at close range, leaps high into the air and then drops them back down into a powerful backbreaker, dealing tons of damage. In addition to its usefulness as a reversal for when Potemkin is backed into a corner or on the receiving end of a combo, it can also be used as an incredibly deadly combo finisher in its own right and can secure him a match he was otherwise losing.
The Grappler: Potemkin has two command grabs in his normal arsenal: The Potemkin Buster and Heat Knuckle. The Overdrive, Heavenly Potemkin Buster, is an Anti-Air Grab that deals massive damage if it connects.
Ground Pound: His aerial Dust attack is to drop downward and concentrate all his mass into a powerful butt slam. It's mostly used as a recovery move for when he whiffs a Heavenly Potemkin Buster, but can also legitimately be used to make Potemkin's air movement less predictable and has a few combo routes of its own.
Ground Punch: One of his XX force breaks, Judge Gauntlet, allows him to slam the ground in front of him with a powerful punch, making it useful as a defensive tool or to knock an opponent's block off.
Hand Blast:
- Originally Heat Knuckle was this, as Potemkin would grab his opponent and cause them to burst into flame seemingly without aid from his gauntlets, dealing a bunch of damage and resetting the round to neutral. As of Xrd, however, it has become clearer that his gauntlets contain weaponry that allow him to set his enemy ablaze when using Heat Knuckle.
- Garuda Impact is a move Potemkin acquired in -STRIVE- where he lowers one of his hands to the ground and squeezes off a fire round from his Arm Cannon. This move deals fire damage and stuns as well as having the Shield Crush property, meaning it's incredibly useful for putting pressure on an opponent, preventing them from approaching or catching them unaware and opening them up for a combo.
Hidden Depths: He likes to paint and draw, but he needs extra-durable painting tools so that he can paint without crushing them.
Hyperactive Sprite: His idle animation up to Xrd has him constantly clenching and unclenching one of his fists as well as curling and uncurling his arm. -STRIVE- averts this by giving him a more natural-looking resting position.
Immune to Flinching: Hammer Fall and Slide Head provide super armor in order to compensate for his huge size, and allow him to close the gap so he can grapple like he's designed to do. High-level tech for Potemkin involves cancelling these moves after getting hit but before the super armor dissipates, allowing Potemkin to tank his opponent's attack without getting stunned and immediately follow up with a deadly, borderline-unreactable counterattack.
In a Single Bound: As part of Potemkin Buster. Exaggerated with Heavenly Potemkin Buster, with its iteration in -STRIVE- going the highest it's ever gone (thanks to jetpack assistance).
Jump Jet Pack: He gains a set of rockets built into his gauntlets in -STRIVE- which assist him in leaping even greater distances than he already can, most prominently with his Heat Tackle move and the animation for his Heavenly Potemkin Buster.
Martial Pacifist: The man will not fight if he can help it, preferring to talk things out whenever possible. Back when he was enslaved, his masters forced him to enter the Second Holy Order Selection Tournament in the hopes that he would win, ordering him to wish for land to be annexed into the Zepp Empire. Potemkin rationalized this by reasoning that less people would die if he were to fight and win than if Zepp were to invade these countries themselves. That being said, though he personally dislikes fighting in any capacity, he's more than willing to engage in friendly sparring and training with characters who want to to test themselves against his skills.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: For a game series with gameplay as extremely hectic and fast-paced as Guilty Gear, Potemkin is unique across all the games in that he trades off the ability to do insane combos which can then be cancelled into even more insane combos so that he can simply do more damage. This means that Potemkin's options are always severely limited against every character he faces, but successfully pulling any one of them off allows him to do about the same amount of damage as his opponent. This rewards a much more slow, patient and deliberate playstyle than any other character, and the only character to play somewhat similar to him in the series so far is Goldlewis Dickinson, who still has more abilities at his disposal.
Megaton Punch: Both of Potemkin's classic Instant Kills are versions of this. His XX version, "Magnum Opera", has him remove his Power Limiter Slave Collar and gauntlets, kiss his fist and wallop his opponent with a punch canonically strong enough to kill Large-class Gears.
Mighty Glacier: Potemkin lacks many of the normal mobility options other characters have. That said, moves like Mega Fist and Hammer Fall allow him to close the distance while dealing damage, and certain normals allow him to hit from across the screen. And of course, there's the Potemkin Buster; if that connects, it will hurt.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Even though he's a more than eight-foot-tall mound of musculature and weighs somewhere in the ballpark of two-thirds of a ton to over a ton in various games, Potemkin is capable of being knocked around and into the air just as easily as any other character in the series, even by Badass Normal characters like Baiken, Goldlewis and Bridget.
Named After Somebody Famous: Zig-zagged. Potemkin's name is likely inspired by the famous Russian battleship Potemkin (alluding to his powerful Mighty Glacier status), but not the Russian Prince Grigory Potyomkin, whom the battleship was named after.
Nerves of Steel: Tries to stay calm during Venom's Xrd Instant Kill.
Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack: Slide Head knocks down Potemkin's opponent if they're standing on the ground and therefore sets up several of his other abilities depending on how close he is to them, but doesn't do any damage by itself.
One-Man Army: With the collar on, the big guy can take on battalions of enemy soldiers alone. In the one instance he removes the collar in the Missing Link, he can kill battalions of Large-class Gears with shockwaves he makes just by punching the ground.
Patriotic Fervor: As of Xrd, Potemkin has fully embraced his role as one of Zepp's defenders. Along with willingly obeying his President's orders without complaint, he is repeatedly noted by other characters to have an indomitable will in the defense of his homeland.
Potemkin: Patriotism is my driving force! I'll never lose to someone who doesn't have anything to protect!
Power Armor: As a soldier of Zepp, he's clad in robotic-looking armor that enhances his strength even further. It also comes with nifty gadgets like wrist-mounted cannons.
Power Limiter:
- In his original design, his slave collar acted akin to this. It had a bomb inside of it which was later taken out after his freedom, but still chose to wear it as both a keepsake and the trope.
- There's also the weights on his hands. His Instant Kill in X and XX involves him removing them and delivering a single punch.
Prophet Eyes: Has no irises or pupils, though you can't see them in Xrd unless his helmet is removed by certain attacks. Averted in -STRIVE-; his eyes now have color.
Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: When using the Heavenly Potemkin Buster, he will almost always draw out the name of the attack until just before it lands, creating this effect.
"Heavenly!...POTEMKIN!...BUSTER!!!"
Real Men Wear Pink: He's an avid artist, and his most treasured possession is a specially reinforced pencil case.
Rule of Symbolism: In -STRIVE-, his Heavenly Potemkin Buster has him ascend to the Heavens witnessed by the gods, but he inevitably comes crashing back down. This draws parallels between Potemkin and a boddhistava, a man who has achieved enlightenment but rejects Nirvana to help those still trapped on Earth.
Samurai Ponytail: In The Missing Link, he has his hair tied into a single gigantic ponytail as a subtle reminder toward him being an honorable warrior of Zepp, a Genius Bruiser and a Martial Pacifist. In X onward and up until his redesign, he exchanges it for a smaller but still distinctive slipknot.
Shockwave Stomp: "Slide Head" has Potemkin slam his entire body (and by extension his hundreds of pounds of bulk) onto the ground, knocking his opponent off balance and allowing him to get up in their face if they're playing defensively.
Signature Move: Undoubtedly the Potemkin Buster, being his single most damaging special move and the crux of what makes him a grappler.
Simple, yet Awesome: "Giganter" and its variations over the years, which simply summon an invulnerable damaging laser wall that slowly moves forward, negating any pressure Potemkin's opponent was putting on him and potentially opening them up for a combo. There is also degree of unpredictability this Overdrive lends itself to where Potemkin at full Tension can do a Giganter and try to bait his opponent to jump over the laser wall, meaning they either are in perfect position to get Heavenly Potemkin Bustered or get pushed back/hit by the laser, but oftentimes players are aware of this strategy and will simply block the laser. Of course, that allows Potemkin a dangerous opportunity to get within grabbing range. Unlike Roman Canceling and the Heavenly Potemkin Buster, which are more situational, doing a Giganter almost always gives Potemkin some room to breathe and a split second to plan or execute his next attack, making it an extremely useful tool in his arsenal which is always worth spending Tension for.
Skill Gate Characters: Newer players notoriously have problems taking advantage of Potemkin's weaknesses (namely probing his defense without getting in range of his deadly command grabs to avoid having a third of their health bar removed instantly), meaning Potemkin has a reputation for demolishing lower-level play but being a more middling character against skilled players who can play against his strengths.
Slave Brand: Has barcode tattoos on his shoulders from his time as a slave.
Slave Collar: Wears the collar he received as a slave around his neck until he's redesigned in Xrd.
Spinning Piledriver: Exaggerated. His Xrd Instant Kill, "Infernal Tour", has him grab his opponent with one of these and then use the spinning force of his body to drill deep underneath the earth and slam his opponent out onto the other side of the planet.
Super Special Move: His long-time Overdrive, the "Heavenly Potemkin Buster", which is even stronger than the original save for being balanced by the fact that it only works on enemies in the air.
Super-Strength: His primary power. Unusually for the Guilty Gear universe, Potemkin isn't insanely strong because he's a Gear, or has access to magic, or even is just really good at fighting like certain characters—he got his strength from a genetic defect at birth that causes him to progressively get stronger and stronger over the course of his life. Even currently, if he didn't use a Power Limiter to rein himself in, he would be causing the earth to tremble wherever he walked and be capable of destroying mountains with a single punch.
Taking the Bullet: Took the Robo-Ky's Missile intended for Gabriel in one of Accent Core's endings, and it was implied then that he did not survive, or at least received serious wounds.
Three-Point Landing: He does one of these after landing when he uses Heat Tackle.
Top-Heavy Guy: His upper body is far bulkier than his lower body. It's justified as him having a strange birth condition. In his original design, his slave collar exaggerated it even further.
Undying Loyalty: He is completely loyal to President Gabriel, the man who freed him from slavery, and by extension Zepp.
Use Your Head: Up until Xrd, one of Potemkin's basic Kick attacks is to lean forward slightly and bash his opponent with his head.
Walking Shirtless Scene: He used to be this until Xrd, when his choice of clothing was only his Slave Collar, his gauntlets and a pair of blue jeans and a belt. His shirtlessness made his already impressive and burly chest stand out from his body even more, accentuating his shoulders and arms. As of Xrd, though, he wears a full Zeppian military dress uniform, including a face-obscuring helmet.
Willfully Weak: He continues to wear gauntlets which limit his own strength at all times even though he is no longer a slave, because otherwise he would be so unbelievably strong that he would be putting those around him in danger.
Wrestler in All of Us: His Potemkin Buster is an exaggerated backbreaker drop.
Wrestling Monster: Subverted; despite being a huge, lumbering guy who obscures his face with armor and is a tried-and-true grappler, Potemkin is a Martial Pacifist who would never willingly hurt someone outside of self-defense, and isn't crazy or unhinged in the slightest, instead being a collected and philosophical Genius Bruiser.
You Are Number 6: Potemkin has what appears to be a serial number tattooed into his right shoulder, presumably an identification marker from his slave days. Similar to his collar, he keeps it even after being freed and even displays it on his uniform from Xrd-onward.
You Don't Look Like You: His Xrd design is probably the most radically altered of any returning character, completely changing his design to a military motif and obscuring his face. Truthfully he looks like he'd be at home as an enemy in Kingdom Hearts.

Chipp Zanuff

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chipp_guilty_gear_strive.png

No matter what happens, face it all head on.

^Xrd

"A vote for me, is a vote for love!"

Voiced by:
JP: Takuya Morito (GG), Takeshi Miura (X-Accent Core, credited in the latter as Gaku Miura), Yoshihisa Kawahara (Xrd -SIGN- onward)
EN: Edward Bosco
KR: Kim Hye-Sung

Playable in: The Missing Link, X, XX, Xrd -SIGN-, -STRIVE-

Profile:

Height: 6'0"

Weight: 146lbs

Gender: Male

Blood type: B

Birthplace: Japan (Actually the USA)

Date of Birth: February 9th

Hobbies: Dreaming of becoming president

Likes: Friends, glasses

Dislikes: Nightmares, Mafia, gangs, Yakuza

Character themes:
Suck A Sage

, Child of the Wind

, Flash Hider

, Play the Hero

Shared character theme:
Drumhead Pulsation

(With Anji and Baiken)

A former Mafia drug-dealer turned Japanese-Wannabe ninja. He was taken in and then trained under a man named Tsuyoshi, who was killed by a member of the Assassins' Guild named Volf. Chipp eventually found this out, and began tracking the Assassins. In X he meets Venom, and accosts him for the murdering of his master, but fails to defeat him. In XX he is brainwashed by Robo-Ky and eventually freed. Afterwards, he meets Slayer, who reveals that he was the original founder of the Guild. Chipp demands to know why he would allow the existence of a group of murderers. Slayer knows the answer, but fights Chipp instead and loses on purpose, telling him that vengeance begets nothing but more vengeance. Slayer then vanishes, telling Chipp that if he's still feeling bitter about it, to come back and try to fight him in another 100 years.

In Accent Core + he decides to run for President to atone for his past sins, apparently taking what Slayer had previously said to heart. He spends the storyline telling people to vote for him, which leads to one of two endings.

In one of the supplemental materials (novel "The Butterfly and her Gale"), he is enlisted as a bodyguard for Erica Bartholomew, the teenage president of "A Country" (formerly the United States of America), and foils the assassination attempt on her by none other than Volf, indirectly avenging his master, since Volf is killed by Venom for failing.

A returning character in Xrd. Chipp's design remains the same, except for the altered pants. Inspired by the growth of Illyria, he works even harder to become President. As a start, he forms the "Eastern Chipp Kingdom", which starts out as a small village but eventually grows to a population of over 20,000. While he's still working on his political skills, he has earned the admiration of the people, and they even refer to him as "boss". Over the course of the story, Chipp gets more and more involved with the plot involving the Conclave after being attacked by Bedman, determined to uncover and stop their plans for subjugating the world under their rule. Through his invesitgation, he forms allegiances with several of the world's national powers, including his homeland of America through his connections to former President Erica Bartholomew, Illyria, and Zepp, and plays a key role in stopping the mastermind behind the Conclave. Some time afterward, he is called upon by Anji to investigate the man known as Happy Chaos in -STRIVE-.

A Fragile Speedster and overall an adaptive runaway / rushdown character with options for any situation. Chipp relies on his impressive mobility and attack speed to avoid even facing the opponent's moves, striking them while they're attempting to lock him down. His defense, however, is the lowest of all characters. As a plus, he is the only non-boss character who can perform a triple jump. Later games also let him climb on walls.

Action Politician: Politician to be, though, since he's still trying to get elected as of Xrd.
Anime Hair: His spiky white hair wouldn't look out of place on a shonen protagonist, which exactly what his design is meant or evoke.
Back-to-Back Badasses: In Accent Core he winds up serving a stint as part of Zepp's Presidential Guard in an effort to gain the experience needed to become a true president, becoming this to Potemkin as they team up to defend Zepp from outside threats.
Balloon Belly: Chipp's Burst is to suddenly inflate himself to the point of bursting before suddenly reappearing with no body damage.
Blade Below the Shoulder: Of the curved, Reverse Grip variety.
Brainwashed and Crazy: In XX, he is brainwashed by Robo-Ky into doing his bidding and ends up getting into fights with other characters. He is eventually snapped out of it by Johnny.
Catchphrase: HOLY ZEN!"
Celibate Hero: Implied.
(after fighting Jam) "You thought temptation would work on a ninja? You're an eyesore, go away!"
Difficult, but Awesome: Chipp is probably the most well-rounded character in the game. He has a boatload of amazing tools that other characters usually only have one or two of. He has a great DP that hits twice, several fast normals for punching out of pressure, great pokes, any number of excellent screen-traversing normals and arguably the best mixup potential in the game. He's also fragile as all get out, requiring extreme precision while playing if you don't want to explode.
Diplomatic Impunity: Attempts to invoke this just before he gets shot out of a cannon by May. Keyword: "Attempts".
Doppelgänger Attack: Chipp's Gamma Blade lets him create a clone of himself that dash-attacks enemies, but he takes damage if it gets hit. -STRIVE-'s iteration of Banki Messai sees him unleash a volley of quick strikes alongside two clones.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Refuses to work together with Ky in Xrd for fear of falling victim to this trope.
Fragile Speedster: With his jumps and teleport, Chipp can literally run circles around his opponent, but his low health means that he can die just as fast.
- BlazBlue makes an oblique reference to Chipp's low defense (comparing it to Ragna's) in its "Teach Me Ms Litchi!" segments.
- Xrd on the other hand, gives him some boost in tournament competence and ranking while still keeping to this trope.
- In -STRIVE-, while he's generally considered top tier, he's practically made of wet tissue paper, and is the community punching bag.
From Zero to Hero: Went from being a down-on-his-luck gangster to a ki-powered ninja and the president of his own country.
Gameplay and Story Integration: Even though Chipp's built like a brick outhouse, his HP is surprisingly really low. It's possibly a result of his body still being a bit fucked up from his old drug addiction.
Gratuitous English: He throws a lot more English words into his lines than most of the cast:
"JESUS!" "WHAT ZA HELL?" "KISS MY ASS!"
Gratuitous Japanese: Because he's an otaku that doesn't really understand Japanese that well, he throws a lot of nonsensical Japanese into his lines because he thinks it's cool:
"SUSHI!" "SUKIYAKI!" "BANZAI!" "DAIJOBU!!"
Guy Liner: This is most noticeable in his Zansei Rouga animation in Xrd, where it shows an up close up shot of him and shows that he's wearing eyeliner. Also doubles as a rare heroic example of a character wearing eyeliner.
Hidden Depths:
- Despite his rough way of speaking, he's actually rather philosophical, as he demonstrates when explaining to May why it was wrong for her to run away from the Mayship.
- Chipp may be somewhat of a blowhard, but make no mistake- he's an excellent ninja. He's one of the few non-Japanese able to use Ki, and got to the level he was at now through nothing but training and dedication. Note that he began his life as a meth-head.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Unless you Red Roman Cancel after, the Shadow Clone he spawns with Gamma Blade has a separate hurtbox.
Humans Are Flawed: Was a former career criminal with a substance abuse that has to really crawl his way to becoming a better man.
Jump Physics: He's one of the few fighters that can triple jump.
Idiot Hero: He is a good guy and at least tries to be politically savvy, but can come off as really naive and idiotic.
Ki Manipulation: Only the second non-Asian capable, behind Kliff. And the only living non-Asian capable, at that.
McNinja: American ninja. (Lacks a husky companion, though.)
Mystical High Collar: His -STRIVE- design includes a Best Jeanist-style mouth-obscuring collar that resembles a stereotypical ninja mask.
Non-Indicative Name: He is the founder of the Eastern Chipp Kingdom yet he insists on being declared its President.
Otaku: A hardcore Japanese fanboy, goes even as far as disclaiming his real nationality. Has something to do with his Japanese master saving him from the life of drug addiction.
Occidental Otaku: He's from the USA, but claims to be Japanese and is obsessed with Japanese culture.
Our Presidents Are Different: As of Xrd, Chip's become a democratically-elected ninja president of his own nation.
Reverse Grip: Not exactly, but it fits.
Scarf of Asskicking: Has always worn one, but it wasn't until Xrd that he keeps it on during fights.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Along with the examples in Gratuitous English above, he tends to yell 'shit' whenever he gets hit.
Super-Speed: Generally pretty fast, but -STRIVE- shows he's able to keep pace with a speeding car.
Those Two Guys: He seems to have developed this kind of dynamic with Anji, to the point that -STRIVE- features them teaming up to force Nagoriyuki to hang out with them to complete their Power Trio.
Wall Crawl: One of his recurring skills, and he has versions of his normal attacks that he can use from the wall. -STRIVE- upgrades it to an upward Wall Run he can use to chase and juggle enemies that get launched skyward in the corner.
Weasel Mascot: His Dust attack in -STRIVE- is performed by Dodomezaki, May's otter undergoing Chipp's ninja training.

Faust / Dr. Baldhead

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/faust_guilty_gear_strive_6.png

I had to run away from here before the storm hit.

^{X to Xrd}

^{Dr. Baldhead}

"Somebody call a... Wait, I AM a doctor!"

Voiced by:
JP: Kaneto Shiozawa (GG, as Dr. Baldhead), Takashi Kondo (X onward)
EN: Kaiji Tang
KR: Hong Bum-Ki

Playable in: The Missing Link (as Dr. Baldhead), X, XX, Xrd -SIGN-, -STRIVE- (as Faust)

Profile:

Height: 9'4"

Weight: 121lbs

Gender: Male

Blood type: O

Birthplace: China

Date of Birth: August 21st

Hobbies: Collecting high quality paper bags (As Faust)

Likes: Believes it's not his place to have such things (As Faust), his scalpel (As Baldhead)

Dislikes: Those who ruined him (As Faust), cancer (As Baldhead)

Character themes:
Suspicious Cook

, The Original

, Take the Pain

, Destructive Goodwill

, Alone Infection

Shared character theme:
Home Sweet Grave

(With Zappa)

Dr. Baldhead was a very famous life-saver, until one fateful day where he failed an operation that cost a young girl her life. He went insane and began murdering people using the very techniques he had once used to save them. After the first game, he sees a vision of the girl who he failed to cure. She reveals that Baldhead did not kill her, but someone else targeted her for assassination. Baldhead has a Freak Out, and disappears from existence.

Some time afterwards, a strange man with a bag over his head makes his claim to fame as a healer. This strange backalley doctor, known as Faust, is said to have powerful occult magic. In reality, he is a reformed Dr. Baldhead, hiding his identity because he was Hated by All. He atones for the murders he committed by returning to his occupation as a healer.

In XX, he encounters a man named Zappa who claims that he has strange blackouts that leave him with various injuries, believing that Faust may know the cause of his ailment. In truth, Zappa is possessed by various spirits, but Faust does not come to this conclusion until Accent Core + . He also encounters Venom in XX, who knows much about ~~Dr. Baldhead~~ Faust. Faust has resented his previous identity and wishes to uphold his credibility. Faust defeats Venom, who reveals that the Assassins' Guild was indeed behind the girl's death, but before he can answer who did it, both are surrounded by Robo-Ky units. Venom agrees to tell Faust more about that fateful day if they escape their pursuers.

He returns in Xrd, nearly unchanged except for new medical cross-like accessories on his arm belts. One day, Faust was approached by Slayer in regards to the circumstances behind the fateful incident that turned Dr. Baldhead into a serial killer. Slayer had learned from an informant, who died bringing him the info, that the Conclave was involved with the botched surgery. Faust once again heads off in search of the truth. It turns out that the reason why the Conclave ordered the girl's assassination was that the method Baldhead chose to save her was too similar to the "Rebirth technique" for the former's liking, and they wished that the technique was exclusive to them. Thus, they sent in the former head of the Assassins Guild, Zato-1, to assassinate the girl whose death would drive Dr. Baldhead to madness. Faust, however, has already declared the man who went by that name to be long dead, and sets aside his anger at the injustice he suffered to focus on the more pressing matter - the impending threat of the Conclave. Assisting in stopping their plans, he happens upon Chronus, the only surviving member after the events of -SIGN-, and learns that there is more foul play afoot than initially believed, and that the Conclave were merely pawns of someone greater. He continues his search for the truth while working alongside Johnny to find a cure for May's condition in -REVELATOR-, eventually discovering that said higher power is behind that too, as well as a plot that would result in the deaths of the remaining Japanese population. With his assistance, this crisis is averted, and Faust continues his journey as a doctor with Chronus in tow.

He returns again in -STRIVE-, but with a very drastic change to his design. And by drastic, we mean that he seems to have a much creepier take on his wacky Reality Warper abilities. Now he can barely stand or speak, his eye is glowing red under his bag, and he looks emaciated with how skinny he is while his bones audibly creak when he moves. As it turns out, Faust willingly pushed himself too far in generating a spell to stop Delilah Neumann's Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum, causing considerable warping of his body but also finally alleviating him of his past misdeeds. Now in the midst of a massive crisis of identity, he has returned to his original persona of Dr. Baldhead and still seeks to heal people even while being a stumbling, barely-conscious wreck. Whether returning to his roots means he is once again insane and slipping back into being a Serial Killer has yet to be seen, but his demeanor has become noticeably more disturbing as of late...

Faust is a spacing / zoner character with an RNG mechanic. He boasts great range on many of his normal attacks, has a weird hitbox and many pressure tools. In turn, he has long recovery times on most of his moves and on his wake-up. Also, his random item summon move is inconsistent, ranging from being extremely helpful to helping the opponent instead, keeping both him and his opponent guessing. Ultimately, he is an adaptive character that rewards on-the-fly thinking, unpredictable use of his tools, and quick reactions to his own items.

Tropes associated with Dr. Baldhead:

Ax-Crazy: In his depraved state he's a threat to everyone around him, becoming a feared Serial Killer.
Bald of Evil: In case the name didn't make it obvious, he's completely bald.
Confusion Fu: While nowhere near the level of his Faust persona, Baldhead can still use his scalpel as a stilt, impale opponents from near full-screen distance and spin around like a top.
Deadly Doctor: With shades of a Mad Doctor. For instance, his Awakening is called "Mad Operation" and is Exactly What It Says on the Tin - Baldhead places the opponent on an operating table, performs some high-speed surgery and tosses them into the air, all while cackling with glee.
Improbable Weapon User: Carries an oversized scalpel and knows how to use it.
Laughing Mad: He's almost constantly cackling to himself.
Lean and Mean: Baldhead is a gangly 282 cm (9'3)^note9'4 in later games giant and he's a madcap Serial Killer with no regard for human life. He's so tall, in fact, that in every game he appears in except -STRIVE- his default standing animation has him squatting on the ground to make him more level with his opponent.
Meaningful Name: Dr. Baldhead has a bald head.
Serial Killer: After the failed operation that killed his patient, Baldhead went mad and went on a killing spree.
Spectacular Spinning: "Going My Way?" puts his entire body into a spin.
Unwitting Pawn: Of the Conclave. Zato-1 informs him of such in Xrd, revealing that they had him kill Baldhead's patient and made it look like a tragic accident.

Tropes associated with Faust:

Many of the tropes applied to Baldhead apply here as well.

Agony of the Feet: One of his Supers in -STRIVE- involves him accidentally knocking the opponent down, before rushing at them with a wheelchair to aid them, accidentally ramming them in the shins in the process.
Ambiguous Situation: The lack of proper story segments in the Arcade Mode and him not appearing in the Story Mode short of a quick cameo in the ending where he appears alongside Chronus in a desert means that just what exactly made Faust do a drastic makeover in -STRIVE- is never explained. Until Another Story, that is. And even that wasn't enough to fully clarify things, so his profile in GG World was updated as well to paint a clearer picture.
Amusing Injuries: His Overdrive, "Bone-crushing Excitement", relies on this. First Faust spots a four-leaf clover on the floor and gets really excited. And in that excitement, he accidentally knocks down his opponent. Realizing what he just did, he pulls out a wheelchair and rushes towards the opponent to assist them, only to instead ram the chair right into their shin, causing the opponent's face to comically distort in pain.
Faust: I will... save you!!....
CRUNCH
Opponent: [Gesture of intense pain]
And the Adventure Continues: Slayer, who at the end of Faust's route in Accent Core + offered Faust to follow him back to his world, which he was sure Faust would survive in. Faust tells him while he's honored by the offer, he can't go until he can heal all the people who need help.
Attack Backfire:
- With his Ass Shove overdrive attack and Instant Kill in Xrd. While they'll still do the same amount of damage to the opponents, some will react positively to these attacks. Such as I-No loves getting hit with this overdrive, and Millia's face and voice look and sound less pained and more pleasured. One of Elphelt's responses is annoyance that Faust didn't at least take her out to dinner first, with another being surprise followed by a moan and a giggle. Then there's Raven looking absolutely ecstatic when hit by it, with starry eyes and a giddy grin.
  I-No: Fortissimo!
  Millia: No, not there!
  Raven: PAN-ZER!
- His opponents can end up liking their facial surgery in his instant kill, depending on what type of face they get. Anybody wanting to look more manly will like the Big Ol' Eyebrows, people who want to be beautiful will like the Bishoujo eyes, and they'll like the Black Beady Eyes look if they want to be cute.
- In gameplay terms, not reacting properly to some of the items pulled out by What Could This Be? special, such as a live bomb or a black hole, can end up knocking you out instead of the opponent and destroy your match.
- The Overdrive attack can also be turned around on Faust. The opponent is given a choice between four cups, one of which contains an angel, and the rest are reapers. They need to pick the angel if they don't want to get hit by it. If they do, the attack has a chance of just blowing up in Faust's face. On the other hand, getting the angel while Faust is on low health can just lead to him ignoring it and attacking anyway (albeit with less damage than the reapers).
Ass Kicks You: His classic throw involves latching onto the opponent, licking their face, then turning around and knocking them over with his butt. It is as disturbing as it sounds.
Ass Shove: One of his Overdrives, "Stimulating Death Fist", has Faust impaling the opponent's rear end with his scalpel, complete with distorted colors and various reactions on part of the recipient.
- In Xrd, he uses his fingers instead, in a manner similar to the Japanese kanchou prank.
The Atoner: For his past misdeeds as the insane Serial Killer Dr. Baldhead. After learning that the death of a little girl under his care wasn't his fault, Faust now travels the world seeking to prevent anyone he aids from ever suffering again. So great is his motivation to do this that he even continues to carry it out after reverting back to being Dr. Baldhead in -STRIVE-.
Back-Alley Doctor: He is technically an unlicensed doctor due to his change in identity (from a Mad Doctor none the less), with his wacky personality not helping his case. He's still a very capable healer in spite of this, in stark contrast to most examples.
Badass in a Nice Suit: His classic design has him wear a fancy white dress suit and tie wherever he goes, remeniscient of an old-timey doctor who makes house calls. In -STRIVE-, he swaps it out for simple blue hospital scrubs more reminiscent of the original green scrubs he wore as Dr. Baldhead back in Missing Link.
Banana Peel: He can randomly toss one out and trip whoever steps on it.
Becoming the Mask: "Faust" was originally an identity he adopted to distance himself from the crimes he committed as Dr. Baldhead, but after years of living under the persona it's essentially become his default self. This gets explored in -STRIVE-, where he is unable or unwilling to discard the personality after helping to save Delilah and the "Faust" in that game has a nearly unrecognizable demeanor compared to his past self.
Beware the Silly Ones: He's an utter goofball in his Faust identity, but that doesn't hide the fact that he's a very deadly opponent with an innate knowledge of the human body, and his powers make him basically inescapable. There are also moments where the psychotic parts of his former identity briefly surface. By -STRIVE-, the focus is much more on the "Beware" part than the "Silly" part thanks to his Darker and Edgier redesign, but he does still have some goofy moves in his kit.
Batter Up!: His Dust Attack has him transforming into a baseball player and batting his opponent into the air. In -STRIVE-, he can use this attack to smack projectiles right back at the opponent with strict timing.
Berserk Button: As of Xrd, encountering Zato-1 shifts Faust from his usual zany cheer to a chilling fury that not even Baldhead was seen with. Faust is so angry with the assassin that he's on a knife-edge from just killing him. For his role in the little girl's death in the operation, Zato-1 can't really expect any mercy.
Faust: GET OUT OF MY SIGHT. If you don't, we may both die.
Bilingual Bonus: In a unusual use of the trope, Faust uses the American Sign Language gesture for "love" in a great deal of his attacks. One can see it when he is folding his middle and ring fingers along with extending the remaining digits... and it remains in -STRIVE-, as he keeps a hold on his scalpel while idle using the same gesture. In Xrd, he also tells Johnny "無問題 (mōmantai)", which means "no problem" in Cantonese. Plus, the "Operation Tabelle" he is reading in his Xrd intro is written in German.
Bitch Slap: Several of his XX-era abilities allow him to deliver a powerful slap to his opponent, either as a midair combo finisher with Holler Again or as a reactive Force Break.
Body Horror: Faust insisting on using his powers to disarm Delilah's force field causes his limbs to stretch out when he isn't able to keep on focusing on the channeling, leaving his body with disproportionately long limbs and fingers.
Book Ends: Faust's story began when he tried to save a little girl. He failed and went insane as a result. By Another Story, Faust's story ends when he tries to save another little girl. He succeeds, but at a great cost that nearly tears his body apart.
Brown Bag Mask: Ever since becoming Faust, he started wearing one, with only one eye hole. He also collects these as a hobby, as described in his profile.
The Cameo: Makes a cameo in Mistover as a possible boss for the player to fight.
Cartoon Bomb: Faust can turn his head into a bag-shaped bomb and throw it at you. While howling "Accept my love!"
Cerebus Retcon: The reason he no longer uses teleporting doors in -STRIVE- and instead opts for scarecrows? It's PTSD from exerting too much power to create a gigantic dimensional door in order to save Delilah.
Charged Attack: Re-Re-Re no Tsuki requires a charge input, and allows Faust to impale his opponent on the end of his scalpel and drag them in as a combo starter, using the charge input to delay it by various degrees to confuse his opponent.
Confusion Fu: Probably deserves Trope Codifier status. He swims through the air and the ground, randomly tosses objects that range from coins and trays to chocolate bars and meteors, grows flowers from his head and blows up opponents on operating tables, giving them afro hairdos in the process. There is a reason his fighting style is known as the "Faust Dance".
Creepy Good: As dark and deranged he looks and acts in -STRIVE-, he still wants to treat people as he has wanted for the longest time. He just leaves a really bad impression of himself, especially the way he talks. He may have finally been able to reconcile his past, but he is still a broken man at his core, which is why he is the way he is in STRIVE. Having cast away his "Faust" persona to return to his roots as Dr. Baldhead, it hasn't left him in much of a coherent state.
Creepy Long Fingers: The length of his fingers in -STRIVE- is exaggerated to suit his creepier direction. They also lend to gameplay by making punch attacks have more reach.
Creepily Long Arms: He's always been pretty tall and lanky, but -STRIVE- plays the trait up more for uncanniness, having Faust's non-dominant arm dragging behind him and moving more like a string puppet than a person.
Creepy Monotone: Coinciding with his -STRIVE- appearance, he loses all of his campiness from before, replaced with a dead and droning tone. It's the result of his conscious decision to return to his roots as Dr. Baldhead. He casts off the mask he wore as "Faust", revealing the broken man he truly is inside.
Darker and Edgier: Hoo boy, his -STRIVE- redesign is this in spades. He may be back, but this is definitely not the Faust you may have known for 20 years. He still has some wacky moves in his arsenal, but he looks and acts very unnatural, as though he's either completely lost his mind once again or isn't even human anymore. Even his Mini-Fausts get in on this, having changed from adorable Fun Size duplicates that float down on balloons to knife-wielding stuffed dolls that scream with rage as they attack. This is revealed in Another Story to be the result of Faust making a conscious decision to return to being Dr. Baldhead, finally reconciling and accepting his past and casting away the "Faust" persona he crafted to stay sane. In doing so, he returns to being the broken man he once was.
Dark Is Not Evil: Faust may be way creepier in -STRIVE-, but he's still the same goodhearted doctor that we know and love; he's just temporarily cast away the goofy persona he crafted due to overexerting himself on a physical and mental level.
Deadly Doctor: He may be The Atoner, but that doesn't mean he won't use his innate knowledge of the human body in a fight. Along with his scalpel he can also deploy a giant syringe, perform surgery as an Instant Kill, or shatter the opponent's shin with a wheelchair.
Difficult, but Awesome: The randomness of his projectiles and his unconventional mobility require Faust players to be very adaptable in order to get the most out of his kit, with individual projectiles having their own combo routes and setplay that he has to be ready for to maximize the damage and effects.
Earn Your Happy Ending: A very bittersweet one. After spending years atoning both for the girl he failed to save and the murders he committed, Faust saves a young girl in need at the cost of almost overextending himself, allowing him to move on peacefully. He continues to wander the world, saving people as a doctor.
Earth-Shattering Kaboom: His X Instant Kill, "This Week's Yamaban", has him rig up a bunch of dynamite onto his opponent and them rapidly press the detonation plunger. We're then treated to a faraway shot of a mushroom cloud, and a short scene of Faust emerging from a bunker only to find nothing but sand all around him, before a very embarrassed look comes across his face.
Epic Fail: If the RNG rolls really poorly, Faust is capable of getting embarrassingly obliterated or potentially even KOing himself. Indeed, it's possible for a Faust player to escape an otherwise deadly combo, only to retreat back into their own exploding bomb and lose the match.
The Faceless: His face is always obscured with his bag or framed in shadow.
The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Played for creeps rather than laughs. His victory pose, if you can even call it that, in -STRIVE- is him slumping onto the television screen and wiping his fingers across it while staring directly at you and blinking once (his glowing eye making audible squishing and cracking sounds as it does).
Fighting Clown: Faust's wide variety of abilities are almost universally silly nonsense; he can turn his scalpel into a pogo stick, give his opponent a Funny Afro, hit them with a The Door Slams You gag which doubles as a teleport move, shove stuff up their rear end and more, all while shrieking and giggling maniacally. Even his creepier, more serious persona in -STRIVE- retains a good number of his old silly moves, like his dust attack being a baseball bat and his being able to throw his own exploding head while swimming through the air. He even gets some new ones, like the Withdraw follow-up to his Re-Re-Re no Tsuki move having him turn his scalpel into a fishing pole and then a golf club to reel in his foe and thwack them away.
Funny Afro:
- His Instant Kill in X has him trying to blow up the opponent with a large Cartoon Bomb, which doesn't seem to work. When he goes to check it, the bomb explodes and gives both him and the victim afros, with each character having their own hairdo.
- He can give his opponents one in -STRIVE-. It's not just for laughs, either; it practically doubles the wearer's hitbox while it's on (i.e. making them easier to hit since they now technically cover more of the screen) and if Faust's attacks ignite it, the afro will explode.
Green Thumb: As part of his many Inexplicably Awesome abilities, Faust can cause flowers to grow from nothing and can even weaponize them while in Pogo Stance. One of his -STRIVE- taunts has him try to recreate this ability only for the flower to always wilt in his hand before he can give it to his opponent.
Helium Speech: In Xrd, one of the items he can toss is a pink balloon that can causes anyone who makes contact with it to speak like this (it has no other effect).
Hitbox Dissonance: A rare invoked example, with the afro resulting from his What Will Come Out move or his new Snip Snip Snip command grab in -STRIVE-. If he successfully uses it, the opponent will be left with a giant afro that counts as a hurtbox. This effectively makes the opponent deceptively larger than normal, making it easier to land attacks.
Humans Are Flawed: Once a serial murderer, he admits that he still takes pleasure in bloodshed, though he is able to keep it under control. Or rather, he was, before Xrd came along and drudged up bad memories of his past by revealing to him just who was behind his downward spiral into madness. And now, as of -STRIVE-, it's looking like he might be losing control of himself again.
Identity Breakdown: This a probable interpretation of the drastic change to his demeanor in -STRIVE-. After years of living as Faust to avoid confronting his true self and trying to atone for his past actions, despite believing himself worthy of redemption for saving Delilah, he doesn't really know how to discard Faust at this point and return back to being Dr. Baldhead, causing him to adopt a weird approximated mishmash of both identities. His Image Song, "Alone Infection", would seem to support this, as it sounds like a cacophony of Faust/Baldhead's chaotic inner thoughts arguing with themselves, with the man's basest personality still ringing out about his desire to heal people.
I'm a Humanitarian: One of his new attacks in -STRIVE- involves Faust grabbing the opponent and eating them whole. Though it's possibly a subversion, since Faust himself is startled by the victim struggling inside his stomach and immediately spits them out through a portal.
Inexplicably Awesome: How can he just transform his body and warp space and time when proper magical researchers can hardly do one of these things? No one knows, but these are the cornerstones of his wacky fighting style, so they don't really need explaining (not that anyone can).
Large Ham: Almost all of his voice lines are shrieked at the top of his lungs, and he's frequently shown making flamboyant gestures as well.
The Lonely Door: One of his most iconic powers is him being able to just create doors which he can use to travel around, regardless if the door is even connected to anything.
Long-Range Fighter: With his large scalpel, array of confounding projectiles, and lanky stature, Faust can dominate the mid-range and beyond, but crumples easily if the opponent manages to corner him.
Mad Doctor: Especially in his -STRIVE- appearance where his attacks become manic and even more unpredictable like a slasher villain.
Magic Plastic Surgery: His new Instant Kill in Xrd: The victims get a new random set of eyes, few of which are the '80 Shoujo eyes, Skintone Sclerae, and the Duke Togo face.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: His movement options are unorthodox, including a slow float instead of an air dash, the ability to crawl around by pressing down and forward, and all of his unique stances that grant unique mobility tools.
Meteor-Summoning Attack: One of his many projectiles is to summon a meteor shower.
My Greatest Failure: The death of a young girl under his care broke the man and has haunted him ever since. He's able to finally forgive himself for it once it's clear that things weren't entirely his fault.
My Greatest Second Chance: He views saving Delilah as this and nearly kills himself in the process due to tapping into an overload of energy from the Backyard.
Never Bareheaded: With the exception of one of his taunt animations, he never takes off the bag after becoming Faust. And when he does, his face is completely obscured by light.
Nuke 'em: His Instant Kill, which involves detonating a nuclear bomb under the opponent while they are strapped to a surgical table in a prop setting of a doctor's office.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: To say that the Faust in -STRIVE- is not the same Faust from past games would be a massive understatement. Whatever happened to turn him into that, did not help his fragile sanity at all. He speaks in a Creepy Monotone and displays none of his cheery personality from before, instead sounding extremely depressed, as if he has lost the will to live. Faust seems to be hanging on due to his dedication to healing the sick and injured, and even then it's practically by his fingernails.
Open Secret: Faust's past as Dr. Baldhead - they share the same build, crouching stance, and their fighting styles have near perfect overlap, and there are so many hints connecting the two through the franchise's history that the only thing that hasn't been done is to come out and directly say Faust used to be Dr. Baldhead. Even Ramlethal, who was introduced fairly late in the series, is aware of his true identity in Another Story.
Our Zombies Are Different: Invoked in -STRIVE-, where he has very bizarre movements like he's a barely sentient rag doll, a glowing red eye through his paper bag hole, has a new attack where he eats the opponent whole, and is very scrawny with stitching around his chest with discolored skin. Though its unknown if he's genuinely undead or going insane again. His GG World bio suggests it might be the second one, along with a combination of Technically-Living Zombie.
Overly-Long Tongue: Some of his attacks have him lick the opponent with his freakishly long tongue.
Out of Focus: He's been a constant staple since the beginning, and had decent roles in previous games despite being a glorified side character compared to the likes of Sol. That said, he makes no real appearance in the story mode of -STRIVE-, though he has a major role in Another Story.
Paper-Thin Disguise: Literally. Seeing as there is absolutely no way to disguise himself properly (being over 9 feet tall is pretty distinctive), he just hides his face with a random paper bag.
Parasol Parachute: He carries an umbrella that allows him to fly, much like Mary Poppins. Several of his round intro and victory animations have him entering and exiting by doing this.
Quirky Doctor:
- The goofball doctor to rule them all. He fights with Confusion Fu tactics like throwing random objects at his foes, has wacky Reality Warper abilities, is a silly Large Ham and one of his Overdrives is shoving either his scalpel or his fingers up his opponent's ass. Make no mistake, though, as despite his eccentric personality he has a heart of gold and has sworn to help the sick and injured whenever he can.
- Downplayed in -STRIVE-, where his sacrifice to help calm down Delilah's Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum restored his old identity of Dr. Baldhead, who is a lot creepier and much more serious despite retaining some of Faust's old silly moves.
Reality Warper: The PWAB is interested in him because he has localized abilities along these lines; they allow him to open and enter extradimensional doors and swim through concrete.
Redemption Equals Death: Faust finally redeems his failure to save the patient who was assassinated by Zato by saving Delilah. This means that Dr. Baldhead's Faust persona symbolically "dies" along with it, returning him to his original identity. Unfortunately, there's not much of the original guy left.
Revenge Before Reason: Against the Conclave, for ruining his life. Subverted, just as he's planning to kill a Conclave member hiding in the Illyria, events lead to him learning about someone pulling the strings, and even the Conclave were merely their puppets. That and there's been many others who's suffered as Faust has.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: In -STRIVE-, he has a predominate glowing red eye peeping through his paper bag hole. Another Story reveals it's a Glowing Eyelight of Undeath.
Rummage Fail: One of Faust's primary and most unique mechanics. "What could this be?" allows Faust to throw a random object at his opponent. Sometimes it's something useful, like a hammer, bombs, a mini-Faust or in the best case scenario a meteor shower, all of which do damage and confuse and overwhelm his enemy. However, he will sometimes pull out less helpful things, like an afro wig, a bunch of bananas or a trumpet(?), which either do Scratch Damage or nothing at all.
Sad Clown: Beneath his quirky and chipper Faust persona who is always cracking jokes and being eccentric lies a deeply troubled man who believes he can never atone for his past mistakes and is still trying to pay penance for them. At least until STRIVE-, when he finally does something that he believes makes him worthy of redemption.
Sanity Slippage: -STRIVE- shows him taking on a much gaunter and more deranged appearance with creepier movements to match, indicating that he may be relapsing a bit into his old psychotic persona. This is reflected in the song that plays in his reveal trailer, "Alone Infection", which when played in full is a chaotic, schizophrenic tune whose lyrics make constant references to depression and paranoia, with a brief interlude where it gets back to a cheerful melody... just for it to crash right back to the chaos.
We've got only only one sky
Blue, Red and Black paranoia
What is it like to you?
No one can see the colors but you
Secret Identity: He hides his true identity out of shame for all the crimes he committed during his "stint" as Baldhead.
Sickening "Crunch!": Just by moving around in -STRIVE-, you can hear disturbing breaking and splintering sounds from his body, emphasizing how decrepit he looks now.
Significant Wardrobe Shift: As part of him "returning to his roots" in -STRIVE-, he wears a set of hospital scrubs more evocative of his original Baldhead design in that game to further reinforce the shift in identity he undergoes after the events of Another Story.
Stance System: Faust has had some kind of alternate stance in each installment, granting access to new moves to mix up his oppoenent with.
- From his first outing all the way until Xrd, he can use "Pogo Stance" to balance on top of his scalpel. He's immune to low attacks on activation and can hop around when active. He's also got unique attacks including... stretching his face at you, spinning around like a screw, and bending the scalpel to swing forward.
- -STRIVE- replaces Pogo Stance with "Scarecrow" where Faust blends into a row of identical-looking scarecrows and can follow up with attacks that reorient himself around them.
Super Doc: Even back as Dr. Baldhead he was renowned for his medical skills and considered the greatest doctor in the world. After becoming Faust, he still lives up to the fame while working out of backalleys and slums. Zappa spends most of his character arc seeking Faust to heal his supernatural condition and Johnny approaches him in Xrd to ask for his help in healing May of her illness. Faust also claims to have treated every ailment under the sun. Incidentally, he reveals to Venom in his Xrd winquote that he actually specialises in ophthalmology.
Survival Mantra: When concentrating on the magic needed to help Delilah, Faust starts getting distracted by how his limbs are elongating. He refocuses by thinking about how he's doing this as a fresh start to move on from his past.
Faust: "Square one! SQUARE ONE! SQUARE ONE!" "Square...one..."
Teleport Spam: One of very few characters to open a door and hit the opponent with it while emerging. He ditches the door in -STRIVE-, using scarecrows instead.
That Man Is Dead: He does not answer to the name "Dr. Baldhead". When Venom called him that, he smacked him and declared that wasn't him anymore.
Too Kinky to Torture: Have another Faust use the Ass Shove attack on him, and he'll loudly and happily exclaim "My G-Spot!"
Truth in Television: -STRIVE- gives him a command grab that involves giving his opponent an afro. On top of being appropriate to his usual wackiness, back in the really old days, doctors and barbers were actually combined into one profession, typically referred to as a barber surgeon. They were combined mainly because their tools were ideal for both tasks. Heck, the spiral used for a barber shop sign is based on Bloodletting, a long discredited medical treatment that involved draining a patient of their blood to balance their humors.
What You Are in the Dark:Oh, to the Nth degree! Even after casting aside his Faust persona and clinging to his sanity by barely a thread, it seems that there's one selfless ideal so core to Faust/Baldhead's existence that he still holds onto his decree to heal the sick and injured no matter what physical shape or mental state he's in.
Faust: Won't... abandon... patients!
Yank the Dog's Chain: One of Faust's Respect animations in -STRIVE- is him pulling out a flower and giving it to his opponent, but it withers immediately afterward, causing Faust to cry.
You Don't Look Like You: Aside from the paper bag and scalpel, Faust's new design in -STRIVE- is nearly unrecognizable from the goofy Confusion Fu-flinging doctor he was in previous games. He trades his suit and comical antics for loose-fitting scrubs, Creepy Long Fingers, and an overall much more unsettling, zombie-like look. The cel-shading constantly leaves him framed in shadow, even on brightly-lit stages, and an Ominous Fog follows him wherever he goes.
You No Take Candle: After overexerting his body in -STRIVE-, he's been reduced from a wacky wisecracker to speaking like this, barely able to spit a few words out at a time.
Your Head Asplode: He can remove his own head with his "Love" special and toss it as a bomb.
Zombie Gait: His new intro in -STRIVE- has him slouch onto the battlefield, barely able to walk straight with Sickening "Crunch!" noises as he shuffles. He grabs his scalpel to hoist himself up and points an accusing finger at the opponent. Once battle starts he's as agile as ever, but it seems he needs a lot of warm-up time now...

Axl Low

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/guilty_gear_strive_axl.png

I walk this path everyday, but somehow, there is a world that is yet to be discovered.

^Xrd

^{X and XX}

^{The Missing Link}

"I'll make it back to Megumi, no matter what! That's the promise I made. To myself!

Voiced by:
JP: Keiichi Nanba
EN: Liam O'Brien (Xrd -SIGN-), Alexander Gross (-STRIVE-)
KR: Shin Bum-Sik

Playable in: The Missing Link, X, XX, Xrd -SIGN-, -STRIVE-

Profile:

Height: 5'10(1/2)"

Weight: 172lbs

Gender: Male

Blood type: B

Birthplace: United Kingdom

Date of Birth: December 25th

Hobbies: Billiards, collecting maps from different time periods

Likes: Megumi

Dislikes: Preaching, death

Character themes:
The March of the Wicked King

Shared character theme:
Drunkard Does Make Wise Remarks

(With Bridget)

An involuntary British time-traveler from the 20th century. Has a connection with Sol from his time-slips (subverted in his intro with Order-Sol in Accent Core). He searches for some way to get himself back home, where his girlfriend Megumi is waiting. In XX it is revealed that he is a being similar to Raven, one of That Man's servants. Because their powers cancel each other out, there needs to be a balance to the equation, so Axl slips through time, while Raven slips through dimensions (of his own accord, not random). In Accent Core + his time slips start getting continuously worse and so he seeks out That Man once again.

A returning character in Xrd. His new design keeps the colors from his XX ensemble but swaps to clothes inspired by the first game, with a long-sleeved jacket and knee-length shorts. While slipping through time uncontrollably, he came across a time he'd never been to before and encountered someone who asked him to deliver a message to the Gear Maker. After returning to the present day, he begins searching for "That Man".

Over the course of Xrd and continuing into -STRIVE-, more details about Axl and his time-warping abilities end up being revealed. Details that end up making him more important to the bigger picture than initially believed...

Regarded as the go-to for zoning and anti-air among Guilty Gear players, Axl has long-reaching normal and special attacks, some capable of covering three-quarters of the screen. His sweeping anti-air options usually lead to big damage or knockdowns. On the other hand, whiffing any of his exacting long-range pokes can be punishing up close due to recovery times and an extended hurtbox on the moves, potentially allowing opponents to take advantage of his below-average mobility and defense.

Warning: major spoilers ahead due to the Plot Twists regarding his role in Xrd and -STRIVE-!

The Ageless: His uncontrollable time travel ability has rendered him ageless in terms of appearance.
All-Powerful Bystander: Becomes this in -REVELATOR-'s Story Mode following the discovery that he was actually a magical being strong enough to rewrite all of reality with a mere thought. The burden of this knowledge, with all the consequences it entails, leaves him with his hands tied for a huge portion of the story until the very last minute, where he finally decides to take action for the better. From this point onwards going into -STRIVE-, he subverts this trope by using his powers for good while taking care not to disturb the balance of reality.
Art Evolution: Axl was a rather muscular guy back in the first GG. Come GGX, he has a slimmer build. Xrd restores his bulk.
Badass Unintentional: Keeps getting forced into combat against his will due to his unpredictable time traveling, but almost always manages to come out relatively unscathed. Sometimes veers into Action Survivor levels should he be dropped right into the middle of a crisis situation—including facing off against dinosaurs◊.
Big Damn Heroes: Not once, not twice, but thrice.
- At the end of -REVELATOR- Axl arrives at the final battle at just the right moment to stop time around the area, not only saving Sol and Jack-O' from King Daryl's mass bombardment of Justice, but giving Sol the time he needs to take in a blast from Saint Oratorio and use it to super charge Jack-O' to the point she can force her merger with Justice to resurrect Aria. In doing so Axl gives up his only chance of ever getting back to his original time.
- In -STRIVE-'s Story Mode, he witnesses an entire skyscraper get blown up by Happy Chaos. So what does he do? Freeze time, teleport into the collapsing structure and drag all the survivors to safety one by one before anybody could figure out what happened. The only ones who were able to catch onto his tricks were I-No and Happy Chaos, and by then he managed to get hundreds of innocent bystanders out alive.
- At the end of -STRIVE- he once again shows up in the nick of time to save a wounded Ky from getting obliterated by the now-godlike I-No by teleporting him to safety, and uses said Teleport Spam powers to aid Ky and Nagoriyuki in stalling her long enough for Sol to destroy her with an Outrage blast.
Blade on a Rope: Axl's weapon of choice is a dual chain sickle. It factors greatly into his keepaway and zoning-heavy fighting style.
Breakout Character: Originally appeared as a side character whose connection to the rest of the cast and story is tenuous at worst and ambiguous at best, until Xrd when Arcsys began taking the plot more seriously following their worldbuilding efforts in Overture. From there he was elevated to a far more prominent role given the massive revelations about the true nature of his existence and his time-traveling abilities, turning him from a Joke Character of sorts to a veritable Walking Spoiler.
Brilliant, but Lazy: Is described as having the ability to logically analyze any situation carefully, but would much rather prefer to simply wing it instead of giving something too much thought. His Steam Card says the opposite for some reason, but Venom quickly discerns that he's not as dumb as he seems.
Venom: You act flippant, but you do so to hide a crafty mind. Not a tactic I care for, but I must acknowledge your skill.
British Rockstar: His design is very evocative of the stereotypical English rocker boy, although ironically the actual inspiration and namesake for his character is the American Guns N' Roses vocalist Axl Rose. And he only gains his British accent in Xrd.
Butterfly of Doom: His seemingly random timeslips are not without repercussions. -REVELATOR- reveals that his actions have effects on causality, causing paradoxes and even altering the very fabric of reality itself. According to Jack-O', this means he might never be able to return to Megumi at all, as his actions may have erased the timeline from where he originated.
Charge-Input Special: Axl's Signature Move, "Rensen Geki", requires a back-forward motion to execute, resulting in a very long-ranged strike with his chain sickle. He can also follow up with additional commands like angling the chain upwards or performing a spinning attack.
Chekhov's Gun: In -STRIVE-, when I-No confronts him after his rescue of hundreds of civilians from Happy Chaos' attack, he notes that he can use his time traveling powers to bring Megumi to the current era and ensure her happiness at the cost of his own existence. Three guesses what I-no does at the end once she remembers her true identity.
Chivalrous Pervert: Despite his unabashed love for his girlfriend Megumi, he likes flirting with the ladies a lot, particularly Millia and I-No. Partially mitigated given that I-No is actually a future version of Megumi from an alternate timeline.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: He won't let anybody die in front of him if he could help it, not even his opponents in combat: case in point, he successfully stopped a gang war singlehandedly back in the 20th century without any casualties. This comes to a head in Revelator where he is forced to choose between saving the world or going back in time to reunite with Megumi; he chooses the former. In Strive's Story Mode he is seen rescuing innocent bystanders from danger using his Time Master abilities, and this eventually becomes a plot point once I-No realizes that her lost love, William, had the exact same outlook on life as Axl, causing her to drop her Assimilation Plot in favor of sacrificing herself to reunite Axl and Megumi.
Clothing Combat: Has a move where he throws his bandanna over the opponent's head before slashing them.
Cool Train: With the exception of Isuka (where he shared a stage with Bridget) and Accent Core (And even then you can make a case of the far background bridge being a railroad), all of his stages feature trains.
Cosmic Plaything: See Time Travel. He never intended to be part of the plot in any way; however, the machinations of beings who aren't even from his own time period have dragged him away from his friends and family, straight into a mess of apocalyptic proportions. Made even more complicated when it is revealed that he may not even be human to begin with, but rather a living bundle of magical information with the power to rewrite or erase entire timelines.
Counter-Attack: Axl's moveset greatly rewards punishing opponents for making mistakes, not only because he's able to hit people from a screen away when they screw up but also because his "Reversal" moves (Notably, Tenhou Seki^note and in X2, Hachisubako) are tailor made to anticipate and deflect attacks coming in high or low—and in the latter's case, deflect projectiles. He drops his Reversals in -STRIVE- in favor of being more of a pure Long-Range Fighter, although the logic behind his skillset remains the same.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He may look naive, but Axl is savvy and skilled enough to tangle with the likes of I-No and Sol (during his Holy Order days) and come out unscathed. Also, as a testament to his growing control over his Time Master abilities, he figures out how to access Bedman's dream dimension at will, travels to I-No's location via thought and even stops and restarts the flow of time in order to rescue Sol and Jack-O' from danger. Come -STRIVE- he's able to stop time at will in combat using his new super move "One Vision", and even utilizes it to save people from danger in Story Mode.
Difficult, but Awesome: Traditionally no, but his -STRIVE- incarnation was made famous for his Tiger-Knee Axl Bomber loops, or "TKB Loops" as known by the community. While many of Axl's tools were removed or altered in -STRIVE-, one of the few that was left unchanged was his Axl Bomber move, which is an aerial combo tool designed to boost his damage in anti-air combos. After some labbing, players found that Axl could perform Axl Bombers extremely close to the ground and even loop them into each other by inputting a jump during the move's normal input, which causes his damage in the corner to skyrocket. A good Axl player who masters TKB Loops can become a deadly opponent, making Axl effective at both close and far ranges. This requires a high amount of skill however, as TKB Loops are among the most difficult to perform combos in the game due to the Tiger-Knee 623 input being awkward to perform.
Dub-Induced Plot Hole: It was once believed that Axl was an alternate version of Raven from the future, who made a paradoxical choice that resulted in him being thrown across time and Raven becoming immortal, thanks to one of That Man's lines from X2. This has since been proven to be a mistranslation on Majesco's part, as the words used actually referred to them being "similar types of beings" in that they're both anomalies who theoretically shouldn't exist in nature, not that they're one and the same person.
Early-Installment Weirdness: He was as jacked as Sol in The Missing Link. He becomes significantly more lean after (though he's still pretty damn buff).
Earn Your Happy Ending: At the end of -STRIVE-, after untold years traveling through time, the revelation that he was never human, giving up any chance of seeing his loved ones ever again and trying his hardest to convince I-No to stop her Face–Heel Turn, I-No realizes in her last moments that Axl is William, her disappeared love from an Alternate Timeline, and uses last of her powers to give Megumi, Axl's girlfriend (who is heavily implied to be a younger, alternate timeline iteration of I-No herself) her current Time Travel abilities, allowing Axl and Megumi to at last be reunited in the current version of history.
Fights Like a Normal: Axl skirts the line between this and Charles Atlas Superpower. Despite possessing no overt superpowers, aside from his vaguely described time travel abilities (which he can't control), Kusari-Gama skills and use of fire magic, he still manages to keep up with the rest of the cast, even those with far more fighting experience. This is attributed to him having been born with Super-Reflexes, which renders even firearms ineffective against him in combat. Additionally, he is described as being one of the rare humans who were able to access magic in the GG-verse prior to its scientific discovery but in -REVELATOR-, the "normal" part of Badass Normal is completely demolished in that he is actually a magical being with Time Master and Reality Warper abilities.
Foreshadowing: In Xrd, one of Zato's win quotes against Axl is him noting that there's no previous historical record of Axl's existence. This is an early clue to Axl's later Tomato in the Mirror moment.
Freeze-Frame Bonus: Beginning in GGX, using either his Benten Gari special or his Byakuerenshou super will briefly flash an image◊ of the Japanese Buddhist goddess Benten a few frames after the start of the attack.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Axl has straight blond hair below the shoulder, and while he can be a bit of a goofball, he still treats just about everyone like an old friend, even those who don't exactly return the favor. And despite the tragic hand he's been dealt, he maintains a cheerful and optimistic attitude through and through.
The Heart: A painfully nice guy despite his Chivalrous Pervert tendencies. He even once offered to let Sol Badguy of all people borrow his Queen CD, finds a good conversation partner in Slayer, has a non-antagonistic relationship with I-No, outright tells Asuka, AKA That Man, that he doesn't seem to be as evil and malicious as others make him out to be, and ultimately helps save the world in the end by convincing a genocidal I-No to stand down.
Heroes Love Dogs: In GGX and GGXX, his stage prominently features a golden retriever in the background. Supplemental artwork◊ seems to imply that the dog is his pet, and she's even shown in the ''GGX'' anime trailer. That's right, Axl happens to be the owner of the original Hype Dog.
Hunk: Axl is incredibly ripped for his size. In the first game he was actually quite massively built as evidenced by his sprite, and despite wearing concealing clothing in the second title, his ending shows just how well-sculpted he really is underneath that shirt. In fact, just look at how much he's been paying attention to Leg Day in Xrd, wherein he once again wears shorts. Let's just say there's a reason he's got his own sizeable share of fangirls.
I Choose to Stay: Near the end of -REVELATOR-, Axl is given the choice between finally warping back to his own time period or using his time control powers to save Sol Badguy. He ultimately chooses to help Sol over the chance of seeing his girlfriend Megumi again, since returning to her would destroy the current world and everyone in it.
Impeded Messenger: Narrowly avoids this fate in Xrd, where he is tasked by the Original, the person who discovered Magic in the Guilty Gear universe, to deliver an encrypted message to That Man. He almost gets killed when Bedman corners him at the last moment, had it not been for I-No's timely intervention.
In a Single Bound: In GG, GGX and GGXX, his HS Raiei Sageki attack caused him to jump offscreen. Holding Left or Right will cause him to gradually move in the respective direction for a few seconds until he falls back down, chains spinning, hopefully on top of the opponent. He'll still fall flat on his face whether or not he hits somebody, unless you blow a Roman Cancel or False Roman Cancel.
Innocent Blue Eyes: Axl has blue eyes, and in spite of his troubles, he retains an optimistic and compassionate nature.
It Was with You All Along: He's been longing for his girlfriend Megumi, even after finding out that he's a Pure Magic Being and bonding with I-No. In -STRIVE-, it's revealed that I-No is, in fact, the much older and much more jaded Megumi of the current timeline, whose memories have similarly been made hazy by the creation and deletion of countless Alternate Timelines.
Karmic Jackpot: After willingly sacrificing any chance of returning to Megumi, for the sake of the greater good, come the end of -STRIVE-, it's heavily implied that, before she dies, I-No brings Megumi to Axl.
Long-Range Fighter: The basic go-to for ranged combat among the playable cast, with a moveset designed around stopping opponents dead in their tracks from across the screen and making sure they stay far away. While a few other characters have similar or sometimes better options for dealing with enemies at range, Axl remains the series benchmark when it comes to reaching out and touching someone...painfully.
The Lost Lenore: As of -REVELATOR-, poor Megumi might as well be this as Axl may not only have erased the timeline from which she originated by accident, but also threw away his only chance of ever returning to her in choosing to save Sol and Jack-O' from certain death by stopping the flow of time. Thankfully, it's revealed in -STRIVE- to very much not be the case. I-No as it turns out is Megumi, or at least a version of her weathered by watching numerous timelines collapse. In the end, I-No gives the Megumi Axl remembers her time travel abilities so she can be with him again.
Nice Guy: Maintains a friendly and optimistic attitude despite his wild circumstances. He holds no real grudges against the various weirdos he fights, chalking it up to "bad luck".
No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's quite obviously based on Axl Rose, the vocalist for Guns N' Roses. His alternate self's name (Will) is also taken from Rose.
"Not So Different" Remark: Jack-O' explains to Axl in -REVELATOR- that both he and I-No are functionally similar in that they're both beings called "magical foci", abstract concepts made flesh by the Backyard. -STRIVE- takes it a step further by revealing that they're both (consciously or unconsciously) clinging onto memories of lovers who are actually, unbeknownst to both of them, each other — I-No is an Alternate Self of Axl's lover Megumi, while Axl is an Alternate Self of I-No's past lover Will. Also, in -STRIVE-, the two have similar pre-battle intro they share with no one else in the cast: time temporarily freezes, during which they emerge from a portal.
The Nicknamer: His Xrd announcer pack contains a few:
- Faust: "Dr. Barmy"
- I-No: "Miss Tidy"
- Zato-1: "Wibbly wobbly..shadowy wadowy...guy."
- Venom: "That bloke with the weird hair."
Playing with Fire: He can use Fire magic.
Pure Magic Being: Axl is actually a being called a "magical foci" that is essentially an abstract concept given physical form and sentience. This is the reason why he can control time and space.
The Pollyanna: Nothing keeps him down for very long, not even learning the truth about his existence in REVELATOR. Learning that he can't go back to his original time without destroying the current one in the process does leave him pretty rattled, though.
Axl, after winning a Mirror Match in Xrd: 100 points for imitating a superstar, but hey, don't feel down 'cos you lost! Be like me! I'm all smiles, and I don't even have a home to go back to...
Reality Warper: Axl is informed by Jack-O' that he is one in his Revelator Arcade Mode ending. He can't be sent back to his own time by I-No because he unwittingly wrote his original timeline out of existence, and after he fully controls his powers in -STRIVE- I-No outright tells him that he's strong enough to erase anyone from reality with a single thought if he so desired.
Sinister Scythe: Chained kamas/kusarigama. Downplayed in the fact that Axl himself is quite the friendly fellow.
Skill Gate Characters: The basics of Axl's fighting style revolves around keeping the opponent at bay with long-ranged chain strikes, then converting into a high-damage knockdown combo on counterhit. Players on the receiving end of his pokes sometimes get annoyed at the fact that they're being pushed back with a scant few button presses, and he's usually seen as something of a Noob Bridge in competitive play because of this. At higher levels, however, Axl players begin struggling to keep up as his gatling combinations and move mechanics necessitate much more thorough study in order to maximize his damage and mixup potential, as well as minimize the danger his extended hurtboxes and lengthy recovery time present.
Something Only They Would Say: I-No knew that her lost love "Will" was someone with "beautiful blonde hair, like a woman's", but didn't recognize Axl as him (or, more specifically, an Alternate Self of him) until he cried for her saying that he "can't get anything out but tears," which she remembered Will had always said after getting into a fight.
Star-Crossed Lovers: -STRIVE- reveals that him also getting a cut of the Time Master powers originally meant for I-No may not have been the "freak accident" it was originally thought to be, because he and I-No are actually alternate selves of the same pair of lovers unaware of each other's identity.
Story-Breaker Power: Time Master abilities aside, I-No mentions that he's powerful enough to erase people from reality altogether, including her. When asked by Jack-O' about who the greatest threat to the world is, Sol's earnest and right-away answer is "probably Axl", because his time powers cannot be replicated by anything in science or magic and could basically make him a Physical God if he so wanted. The only thing holding Axl back is the fact that he is, at his core, a very kind-natured man.
Stuff Blowing Up: Barring his Byakuerenshou Overdrive, most of his applications of Fire magic appear to be this.
Time Master: With a side dish of Reality Warper, to boot! In -REVELATOR- he finally gets over his Power Incontinence and puts this ability to good use in aiding Sol by stopping time itself, at the possible cost of no longer being able to return to his own time period. Come -STRIVE-, he can now stop time at will with his "One Vision" super and even uses time manipulation in the form of Teleport Spam to rescue people in danger during Story Mode.
Time Stands Still: -STRIVE- gives him a new move, "One Vision", which briefly freezes time. The background turns monochrome during this.
Time Travel: Mostly against his will. GGAC's Story Modes for I-No and Axl imply that one of the catalysts is a clashing of two powerful energy sources, though. Meaning that every time Axl fights a particularly strong opponent, he will most likely end up time slipping sooner or later following the confrontation. During his Story Mode dialogue with Slayer, the latter also deduces that Axl's time slipping ability, while largely uncontrollable, could also be tied to his subconscious desires and memories somehow. However, the lack of control is being subverted as of Xrd; see Time Master above.
Tomato in the Mirror: Both Axl and I-No are beings called "magical foci", which means they were never human to begin with; they're literally walking bundles of magical information given sentience. Discovering this fact led Axl into a deep depression. This was actually foreshadowed in -SIGN- during Zato's winquote against him:
Zato-1: According to my knowledge, there is no previous record of your existence. What is this...?'
Took a Level in Badass: Went from a hapless, somewhat bumbling average joe who found himself uncontrollably hurtling through time and getting into situations beyond his control, to a Physical God possessing a Story-Breaker Power once he learns more about himself from individuals with intricate knowledge about the workings of the Guilty Gear universe.
Variable-Length Chain: To ridiculous levels. His various Instant Kill attacks are the worst offenders, magically conjuring hundreds of meters of chain to crush, stab or even blow up his opponents. And even at base level, there's no way his retractable sickles could possibly hold about 12 feet of chain in its handles.
Wearing a Flag on Your Head: Several variants.
- His costume in the first Guilty Gear had boots with a Union Jack pattern on the toecap◊. Given how small it is, it's not immediately obvious.
- His more widely-known design from Guilty Gear X and XX included a long sleeved shirt with a large Union Jack pattern.
- His latest costume from Guilty Gear Xrd has two dangling coattails emblazoned with the Union Jack. And if that's not enough, using his aerial Dust attack will reveal that the soles of his shoes also have said pattern.
- Downplayed in his -STRIVE- redesign, which features a simplified red-and-white design on his coat sleeve and on a small pouch attached to his belt
What You Are in the Dark: At the end of -REVELATOR-, he has the choice between not using his powers in the hopes that he could one day return to Megumi and his timeline or use them to save Sol and Jack-O'. If he let them die, no one would ever know. He does the right thing.
Axl: [audibly on the verge of crying] My girlfriend... Megumi's smile is really cute. Even if I abandoned this world, she'll smile and tell me "It must've been such a tough decision." That's the kind of girl she is. ...That's not good enough for me. It's not good enough! If my eyes are so clouded...and I let that happen... How the hell am I supposed to see that smile of hers!? That's why I... GIVE 'EM HELL, BOSS!
Walking Spoiler: Becomes this from Xrd onwards, due to his vastly increased role in the plot and the revelations regarding his true nature.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: When Jack-O' asks Sol about who he thinks poses the greatest threat to the world in -STRIVE-, Axl is his answer, with Jack-O' adding that he could probably become a god if he really wanted. Axl, however, only ever uses his Time Master powers to help others, and he was instrumental in helping save the world in -REVELATOR-, even sacrificing his own personal happiness in the process.

Kliff Undersn

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kliff_underson.png

Pride and Glory

"Looks like pretty soon I'll just be a part of history."

Voiced by: Hatsuaki Takami (GG), Shigeru Sakano (XX onward)

Playable in: The Missing Link, XX

Profile:

Height: 4'10"

Weight: 121lbs

Gender: Male

Blood type: AB

Birthplace: Switzerland

Date of Birth: September 9th

Hobbies: Sailing

Likes: His priceless Japanese teacups

Dislikes: Fashionable, voguish words

Character themes:
Pride And Glory

, Vengeance Is Mine

The former leader of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights. When he was 7 years old, the Crusades were already in full swing and he would've been just another unfortunate victim of the Gear attacks... if he wasn't saved by a mysterious man named Frederick. Some time later he joined the Sacred Order, eventually becoming its leader. More than half a century later he invites Sol Badguy to join the Order, and encounters Ky Kiske who wanted to join the Order. Kliff refuses him, telling him to train and meet him in five years. Five years later, he met Ky again, now a powerful warrior and genius tactician, and recruits him without regrets.

During the First Holy War, he encounters Justice, who defeats him in their 17th duel. Ky attempts to attack Justice upon seeing his master injured, but fails. Kliff bore witness to Sol's failure to fully defeat Justice, which fueled his dissension from the Order. Knowing that Sol is destined for something greater than where he is now, he passively assists Sol in taking the Fuuenken with him, which Ky finds out about, elevating his already mounting dislike for Sol into all-out hatred.

Eventually he retires and passes the leadership of the Order to Ky. He entered the Sacred Knights Tournament in order to stop the revival of Justice, but is shocked that his adopted son Testament, now a Gear, is behind the curtains. He is killed by a resurrected Justice in their final, 18th duel. After his death, the Sacred Knights of the Holy Order are disbanded. He was notable for ability to use Ki, something that was considered exclusive to Asians.

Kliff was made playable since XX as a bonus character, but was only made tournament-legal in XX Accent Core +R as a hard-hitting fighter with enormous reach... and horrid mobility and defense. Generally an easy-to-play damage and stun machine, Kliff has a unique self-stun mechanic in that some of his moves will raise his own stun level. Playing as Kliff is an exercise in calculated risk-taking. Kliff was, however, completely absent from all iterations of Xrd.

The Ace: Even past his prime, Kliff is a formidable fighter and one of the most respected Crusaders of all time. He was also the first person from the West to utilize ki.
Adapted Out: Weirdly, he's not at all involved with some of the incidents in the -STRIVE- prequel comics that previous titles said or implied he should've been a significant part of. He makes the briefest of cameo appearances during the GG1 chapter (with no spoken dialogue) and we finally get a good shot of him in his prime during the intro of the "Sol's days in the Sacred Order" chapter, and that's it.
BFS: The Dragon Slayer is absolutely gigantic. It dwarfs Kliff in both height and width, and has a hilt so long it make the weapon barely resemble a sword and look more like some kind of gigantic polearm.
Blank White Eyes: During battle, but his story mode portrait shows him with normal eyes.
Clark Kent Outfit: One of his round-end victory animations shows that while he's obviously muscular, his clothes do a great job of hiding how SUPER buff he is as he tears off his garments just by flexing.
Cool Old Guy: It's unclear exactly how old he was when he died, but he was already gray and a legend when he met a little boy named Ky in 2160, and he fought in the Crusades long enough to duel Justice seventeen times prior to GG 1.
*Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": He can bend his body backwards to dodge incoming attacks. But he's doing that in his old body, so there's a chance that him doing it while carrying that huge Dragon Slayer instead cracks his back and he takes damage.
Custom Uniform: His younger self wore shorts instead of pants in some of the official art.
Feeling Their Age: While still very strong, his age slowed him down considerably. Several of his special moves actually leave him winded and needing a second to recover.
Flipping the Table: One of his intros.
Fountain of Youth: During his specials, he turns back to what he looked like as a young man.
Glass Cannon: In +R. He's got big range and damage and can dizzy opponents within a matter of seconds....but his health is low and he's also infamously easy to dizzy himself. Some of his moves will raise his stun rating, have significant lag or have a chance to backfire badly. Players must be smart when using Kliff, as while his tools are strong, overuse of them or even one slip up could cost him the whole round.
I Was Quite a Looker: Many flashbacks and his youth-restoring abilities reveal that he used to be a tall, slender, spiky-haired Pretty Boy like Ky, and he did not age gracefully, especially with his now diminuitive height and scraggy beard.
Ki Manipulation: Kliff is the first non-Asian in the cast to use this power.
Killed Off for Real: He canonically dies in Missing Link, having pushed himself too far.
Mentor Archetype: As The Leader of the Sacred Order Of Holy Knights, Kliff trained and raised an entire Badass Army, as well as graduating both Sol and Ky from the School of Hard Knocks—literally and figuratively. He effectively hand-groomed Ky to succeed him as leader of the Order and taught Sol a thing or three about respect and how to earn it.
Mighty Glacier: Can deal a huge amount of damage, but is extremely slow, partly as a result of being old.
Miniature Senior Citizens: He shrunk for about a foot when he aged.
Obfuscating Disability: He is an incredibly old man, and while he's clearly a badass, much of his absurd strength has faded with age...until he uses his abilities to temporarily restore himself to his prime.
Old Master: To the Holy Knights, especially to Ky.
Posthumous Character: Died in the first game but continued appearing throughout the X and XX series one way or another. His story in Λ Core is a Whole Episode Flashback to some of the events of the first Crusades.
Red Baron: He'd occasionally be referred to as the "Dragonkiller".
Retired Badass: Prior to the first game, he was commander of the Holy Order but retired and gave command of the Order to Ky. He joins the second Order tournament after hearing of Justice's release.
The Rival: He and Justice battled several times through the Crusades, each leading an opposing faction to the other. She kills him in the end.
Simple, yet Awesome: Kliff's gimmick is basically "Do disgusting amounts of damage using only predictable, cleaving swipes". Even his slowness doesn't stop him from being tournament banned in most of the games he's in due to just how strong he can be in the right hands.
Universally Beloved Leader: Kliff was beloved by all of his fellow crusaders, and was a major, positive influence on several characters like Ky and Testament who admired him greatly.

Unlockable Characters

Testament

It's not evil or sacred, it's just life.

^{Original Design}

"I used to carry myself like some sort of demon, too. Even though I was surrounded by accepting people."

Voiced by:
JP: Takami Akkun (GG), Akira Kobayashi (X-AC^note), Yuu Kobayashi (-STRIVE-)
EN: Kayleigh McKee
KR: Hyunjung Cho

Playable in: The Missing Link, X, XX, -STRIVE- (DLC)

Profile:

Height: 6'1"

Weight: 161lbs

Gender: Non-binary (Agender)

Blood type: Unidentifiable

Birthplace: Switzerland

Date of Birth: May 9th

Hobbies: Too many to list (as of -STRIVE-)

Likes: Themself, family, Kliff Undersn, potatoes

Dislikes: Saito-style martial arts, Sol Badguy (before -STRIVE-)

Character themes:
A Fixed Idea

, Bloodstained Lineage

, In the Arms of Death

, Like a Weed, Naturally, as a Matter of Course

Shared character theme:
Push A Bush

(With Zato/Eddie)

The series' traditional mid-boss. Once a normal human (Kliff's adopted son), they were turned into a Gear by the PWAB. In the first game they organize the first Sacred Knights tournament to lure worthy sacrifices for Justice's revival, but ended up becoming one themself. In X, they are revived due to Dizzy's influence as a commander Gear, and becomes her guardian until Johnny takes her in. After that they're pretty much Walking the Earth pondering if Humans Are the Real Monsters or not, a part of themself that didn't fade after Justice's death.

They've actually been relatively conspicuous in their absence in Xrd; while it's easy enough to imagine it's due to Dizzy finding happiness, it's unclear exactly what happened to them and even as of -REVELATOR-, the encyclopedia entry about them is vague on 2187 details and they aren't mentioned by the characters in the plot itself. It isn't until -STRIVE- that we finally learn what they've been up to. At some point after the events of X and XX, Testament stayed behind near the Forest of Demons, in the village where Dizzy was originally raised. Living among the residents there, including Dizzy's adoptive family, they steadily regained some of their lost humanity and idealism over the 5-year time skip. They now live a peaceful life with Dizzy's foster parents.

Testament is a defensive character that relies on zoning and traps. Their regular attacks have large hitboxes but are quite slow, and is able to control the battlefield with their traps, slow projectiles and long chains of attacks. Some of their moves also poison enemies for a while or until they hit them, rewarding defensive play further.

In -STRIVE-, Testament's moveset has been completely reworked. They no longer utilize the traps they became infamous for, trading them in for stronger options at mid-range. They retain the ability to curse their enemies, though it works quite differently, now putting them into "Stain State" similar to Ky's "Shock State" by hitting them with specific special moves. Their crow familiar no longer automatically attacks the opponent when they are cursed. Instead, while a location is marked by their pink succubus familiar, Testament can now manually command the crow to home in on that location. The location of the succubus also determines where Testament can now manually teleport towards, or otherwise fake out their opponent by reappearing in the same location.

Ambiguous Gender Identity: Testament was originally designed to invoke this, having a heavily-filtered voice in the first game which made them sound effeminate, in addition to having a design heavily based on the male Marilyn Manson, who at the height of his popularity was very much a Bishōnen. Later games would have them voiced by a male voice actor and undergoing an Art Shift to look more masculine. It isn't until their reappearance in -STRIVE- where they return to the original intentions of the first game, now sporting a much more androgynous design and even having different directed tones in both Japanese and English (more feminine in Japanese, more masculine in English), with the localization officially referring to them by they/them pronouns and official material revealing that they're meant to be non-binary.
The Atoner: They do this by protecting Dizzy and the forest they lived in, calling it a "sanctuary" in the GGX anime trailer.
Attack Animal: Testament's succubus familiar commonly takes the form of a crow who flies by them and will attack when commanded.
Barbarian Long Hair: They kind of look like a Black Metal musician.
Bloody Murder: They took a blood pact (possibly through a bloody ritual), granting them a scythe blade made of blood. They can also turn into blood themselves, fire giant blood skulls, drain their opponent's blood during their original throw animation, trap you in a sticky blood web, and even used their own blood as a sacrifice to revive their master in the first game. Their pink-haired succubus familiar in -STRIVE- gets devoured by the skull headcap in a bloody mess to create the blade portion of the scythe, and they can create projectiles of blood shaped like demons using their scythe.
Borrowin' Samedi: Intentional or not, their -STRIVE- design arguably qualifies, right down to the use of a voodoo doll during their air throw.
Break the Cutie: Before becoming a Gear, they were a Holy Order knight. Even before their character development in "-STRIVE-", their profile in X mentions that they were, deep-down, gentle-hearted, charitable, and that they detest violence. All of this was also laid out fairly clearly as early as Kliff's Missing Link ending:
Justice: Are you saying that Testament...that Gear...was your son?
Kliff: My stepson... I took him in during the Crusades. Such a kind lad...he volunteered to be a soldier. He thought it would make me happy! Whatever he saw during that war, all the bloodshed...it drove him mad. I...I had no choice.
The Bus Came Back: After over 10 years of being absent from the main story, they make a brief cameo at the end of Strive, and would later be announced as the fifth and last playable character in the game's first Season Pass.
The Cameo: Makes a very brief one at the end of -STRIVE- during the scene focusing on the Kiske family.
Character Development: Turned from psycho goth into atoner after meeting Dizzy. -STRIVE- shows that they have completed their atonement and have found happiness again.
Classy Cravat: They wear a cravat in -STRIVE-, fitting with their classy, tea-sipping image.
Collector of the Strange: Among their many new hobbies Testament has taken to collecting various occult items.
Counter-Attack: X gives them "Warrant", a counter that makes Testament blink behind their opponent and inflict a poison status on them.
Creepy Crows: Furthering their Grim Reaper motif, they have a crow familiar that follows them wherever they go and can attack indpendantly.
Creepy Good: Even when on the side of good, Testament's abilities venture deep into satanic imagery and all sorts of Body Horror. They fight using their own blood, summon all sorts of demonic familiars, sport a Nightmare Face during their throw animation, and so on.
Cultured Badass: Post Character Development as of -STRIVE-, Testament presents a classy, elegant image with a sort of Victorian flair. They're even given the tagline "The Elegant Grim Reaper". Their numerous new hobbies also include activities such as appreciating opera, bonsai, gardening, painting (poorly) and embroidery (though they also enjoy shark B-movies).
Dark Is Not Evil: Post-Missing Link. They fight with a scythe made of blood and occult magic including the likes of crow, succubi, and other assorted demonic familiars., all to protect Dizzy. As of -STRIVE- this extends to the many friends they have made over the years since X.
Death Seeker: Averted. Despite the guilt of killing a lot of people during the Crusades because of Justice's control and them being the indirect cause of their own father's death, Testament does not wish to die but to find atonement and redemption for what they had done by living.
Declaration of Protection: Their oath to Dizzy, has gone to extreme lengths.
Difficult, but Awesome: The bulk of Testament's damage output comes from their multitudes of traps they can set all over the stage. Strategic placement of these traps, alongside spatial awareness of where to smack the opponent around into said traps is a key aspect to getting good at playing them.
The Dragon: To Justice. Later, a nicer one to Dizzy.
Drink-Based Characterization: They have a particular fondness for tea, denoting their refinement and politeness. Fittingly, they used to be a knight.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: In the first game, but they're now considered as a rare non-binary example of Raven Hair, Ivory Skin.
Expository Pronoun: In Testament's Arcade Mode story, when they encounter Chipp, he refers to Testament with "they/them", indicating his immediate uncertainty about their gender. When Testament faces Nagoriyuki, he refers to Testament with "he/him", their pre-Gear gender, indicating Nagoriyuki either does not care for such things or was able to determine Testament's original state of existence using his Blood Rage ability. Regardless, it shows the modern/antiquated dynamic between Chipp and Nagoriyuki.
Extreme Doormat: The way they fight is awesome, but canonically, after X they do very little but sit in the Forest of Demons thinking about Dizzy and whether Humans Are the Real Monsters or not. Their reappearance in -STRIVE- reconstructs this, showing that being accepted by and living among the neighboring residents of the forest gradually restored their once-lost humanity and idealism, granting them inner peace.
Familiar: They actually have three; two succubi, one of which frequently takes the shape of a raven, and a demonic being called EXE Beast.
Fanservice Pack: Their redesign in -STRIVE- is far more effeminate. While their new outfit is more modest on the top half of their body (unlike in The Missing Link and XX, where they showed a lot more midriff), there's still a lot of emphasis on their fully exposed legs, shoulders and armpits.
Fleeting Passionate Hobbies: Testament picked up a lot of hobbies in-between Accent Core and -STRIVE-, so much so that it's impossible to list them all in the infobox without cluttering it up.^{The full list includes...}
Friendship Moment: With Dizzy counts as well if we discount their physical age. Testament, during the war, wandered as a Gear for at least 40 years and learned to hate humanity. Dizzy has a three year existence and was born after the war and has lived most of her life secluded in a forest.
Friend to All Children: Though they hate the human race, human children seem to be exempt from this view, as evidenced by their dialogues with Josephine in the drama CDs.
Friend to All Living Things: Subverted: it's their similarity to Dizzy; however, unlike her, they have some violent measures to protect their forest.
Glacier Waif: They're not exactly all that heavily-built, nor is their mobility anything special on its own. But their scythe and variety of stage-control tools more than makes up for it with all the damage they can churn out.
Goth: The Lone Psycho Type in The Missing Link, Gloomy Type afterwards, with a slight shift towards Perky Goth in -STRIVE-.
The Grim Reaper: Not exactly, but they look like one. Their new outfit in -STRIVE- adds in a sort of Victorian flair to the look, with their tagline even being "The Elegant Grim Reaper".
Happily Adopted: They were adopted at young age by Kliff and had a deep admiration for the man, intending to become a crusader like him.
- By the time of -STRIVE-, they're living peacefully with Dizzy's foster parents.
Hermaphrodite: According to interviews with Daisuke Ishiwatari, this is the being that Testament became after being converted into a Gear, originally being male but gaining aspects of both traditional sexes afterward. Officially, they are non-binary.
Homing Projectile: They have "Arbiter Sign" in -STRIVE-, sending a giant maw of teeth out that strikes wherever their opponent is. It can hit either as an overhead or a low strike, allowing them to mix up their strikes.
Image Song: Like a Weed, Naturally, as a Matter of Course.
Intimate Marks: According to the developers, their Gear Mark is near their buttocks.
Kill All Humans: In different degrees throughout the story. Played straight when they were being bent to Justice's will, averted post Missing Link after meeting Dizzy, though in one of the possible (non-canon) endings of XX, they go back to this when Dizzy is killed. Fully averted by the time of -STRIVE- thanks to Testament's faith in humanity being restored over the years.
Knight in Sour Armor: Testament was once a Wide-Eyed Idealist as a member of the Holy Order. After being turned into a Gear, their mind was not only reconditioned to hate humanity by Justice, but as they fought for her and even after being freed from her control after her death, they witnessed firsthand the potential of human cruelty and evil. By the time they met Dizzy, their hatred for humanity had become genuine and their idealism was utterly shattered, leaving them a tragic, broken invidual. Subverted since -STRIVE-, as it's shown that over the years, people came to accept them despite being a Gear, restoring some of their once-lost idealism and faith in humanity.
Lighter and Softer: Downplayed and enforced. In the past, Testament's design and moveset had very dark occult themes, involving elements such as self-harm and mutating their own body in creepy ways like distorting their face into a blood-drained skull. In -STRIVE-, these occult elements aren't changed, but the Character Development they underwent means their personality is no longer as gloomy as it was before, and so their moveset evolved in accordance. They now wield their scythe in a more relaxed stance and perform more graceful maneuvers as they move about the stage. Even their attacks are less forceful and brutal-looking, instead being more refined, elegant, and in control with years of battle experience.
Living Forever Is Awesome: In a manner of speaking. In the interim between XX and -STRIVE-, Testament managed to pick up a lot of hobbies, finally restoring some of their lost idealism and learning to love life again.
Long-Range Fighter: Testament's -STRIVE- moveset is designed for playing at mid-to-long range, using their large scythe and variety of projectiles to keep their opponent in that space. Should they want to go on the offensive though, "possession" lets them reappear wherever their last projectile hit so they can mix-up at closer range.
The Minion Master: Their primary unique gimmick in every game involves manipulating all three of their Familiars to attack alongside them and overwhelm and confuse their opponent. Up until XX they employed this by being a Trap Master, using their familiars to set up delayed attacks and other persistent traps to catch their opponent off-guard, and in -STRIVE- they instead shift to using them as a Long-Range Fighter with multiple avenues of attack.
Morality Chain: Dizzy. In one ending of GGXX, Dizzy is slain, so they give up on the human race and begins a genocidal rampage against them.
Musical Nod: Their theme in -STRIVE- has an opening guitar riff that resembles something similar from "A Fixed Idea", their theme from Missing Link.
Non-Human Non-Binary: -STRIVE- reveals that Testament's transformation into a Gear changed the once-male adopted son of Kliff into a being that transcends the traditional concepts of gender, with the localization officially identifying them as non-binary.
Overly Long Name: Their Image Song is titled "Like a Weed, Naturally, as a Matter of Course".
Power Echoes: Of the Evil Sounds Deep variety.
Put on a Bus: In Xrd. Testament pointedly missing for all three major revisions and didn't even have any story significance. They don't come up during Ky and Dizzy talking about how the two of them first met, when the GGX intro cinematic way back when posited that Testament should've been a significant part of that entire adventure. At the very least, they do appear in the -STRIVE- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, still watching over Dizzy.
Queer Colors: Accompanying their more explicit portrayal as non-binary in -STRIVE-, their two new familiars each have pink and light blue hair and share white(ish) skin, corresponding to the transgender flag. There were also early signs of this as far back as X, as the one vamiliar that was shown (the light blue one) had noticeable pink highlights on their body.
Red Baron: They're called The Gear of Distortion because they're able to travel between dimensions. Once freed from the control of Justice, they become known as the Black Knight, initially for their resolve to protect Dizzy, and later in -STRIVE- for their renewed sense of chivalry.
She's a Man in Japan: A complicated example. Prior to -STRIVE-, they were written as male in the localizations due to a combination of the nuances of the Japanese umbrella term for nonbinary people ("X-Gender") getting Lost in Translation and the fact that officially they were labelled as ryōsei (an androgyne person with the characteristics of both sexes) rather than musei (Agender due to them being a Non-Human Non-Binary Gear) as they are in -STRIVE-. The localizers simply took the fact that they had more outwardly male characteristics than female ones and ran with it.
Sinister Scythe: Their weapon of choice, made of blood.
Stealth Pun: -STRIVE- overhauls Testament's outfit and moveset, makes them look much more androgynous compared to their previous incarnations, and has them fully embrace a nonbinary identity. In other words, you now have Old Testament and New Testament.
Succubi and Incubi: They have a succubus as one of their several Familiars.
Swap Teleportation: "Possession" works by Testament swapping places with a succubus they send out using their projectiles.
Terrible Artist: Among their plethora of new hobbies is painting/drawing, though they're noted to be terrible at it.
Took a Level in Cheerfulness: They're initially introduced as very gloomy and pessimistic, with a particular hatred towards humanity. After their return in -STRIVE-, they tend to smile more often and their dialogue is a bit more playful, since they've made more friends and become more at peace with themself in the years since.
Trap Master: Prevalent in several of their special moves, such as conjuring bloody spider webs and summoning trees from the ground should the opponent step where they set the trap.
Travel to Projectile: Their "Grave Reaper" special from -STRIVE- sends a bloody skull projectile out, and wherever it ends, a succubus will be left in its place. Testament then can use "Possession" to swap places with the succubus, allowing them to close distance after zoning out their opponent.
Unabashed B-Movie Fan: In contrast to their classy, elegant appearance and mannerisms in -STRIVE- one of their new hobbies is enjoying shark B-movies.
Unwitting Pawn: Twofold. Xrd reveals and -STRIVE- reiterates that they were turned into a Gear by the Conclave as a means of perpetuating their agenda of only allowing humanity to progress according to their own whims in their belief they were combating the Universal Will, not realizing that the Will was already enacting its plan to Kill All Humans through Justice.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: In Kliff's ending in the first game, he mentions that Testament was originally a kind person, and joined the Holy Order against his wishes because they thought it would make him happy. Furthermore, their profile in X mentions that even before their character development in -STRIVE- they were a kind person who would rather see criminals redeemed than punished.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: Towards their adoptive father, Kliff.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: They don't exactly think that Gears are gods per se, they just think that humanity is the root of all evil.
Xanatos Gambit: Their plan to free Justice using the first tournament, which included a contingency plan for their own defeat.
You Don't Look Like You: Played With. Testament androgynous design in -STRIVE- is a significant shift from their more masculine appearance X or XX. At the same, it's Inverted by aligning with the original intent of their design in The Missing Link.

Justice

Justice (Aria Hale)

Thrown in to the flood of rage, hatred and all.

"If only we could have talked one last time... Just the three of us...Sol...We should...talk again...All...three of us..."

Voiced by: Takuya Morito (GG), Yumiko Ogawa (XX, AC+ Battle Voice), Wakana Sakuraba (AC+ Story Voice), Kazue Fujita (Xrd)

Playable in: The Missing Link, XX

Profile:

Height: 7'7"

Weight: 487lbs

Gender: Female

Blood type: Unidentifiable

Birthplace: USA

Date of Birth: September 2nd

Hobbies: Sleeping

Likes: Herself

Dislikes: Humanity

Character themes:
Meet Again

, Day of Judgement

The first fully complete Gear ever created. Justice was a Commander Gear, able to bend the will of all other Gears created after herself to her own will. Justice realized that she was created as a mere tool for the world to use and later dispose of. Needless to say, she was PISSED. She decided to revolt against humanity and instigated the first Holy War. She then fought Sol Badguy, and discovered that he bore the mark of a Gear, but when she tried to control him, it failed. Shocked by this, she was stunned long enough to be sealed away into a dimensional prison by Ky and the other Holy Knights. It seemed as though the war was over.

... But it wasn't.

Five years later, her faithful servant Testament held a fake tournament to lure sacrifices to revive Justice. Sol entered and defeated Testament, who then sacrificed themself to release Justice from her prison. She resumed the battle she started with the world, and instigated the Second Holy War. She finally killed the former head of the Holy Knights, Kliff Undersn, and defeated Ky Kiske in battle, revealing her (somewhat justified) motives to him afterwards. After giving the young knight something to think about, Sol appeared before her once again, and she flew into a complete rage. It seemed as though victory was certain for her, but in the end, Sol dealt her one final blow, and she fell. Justice, realizing that death was certain for her, asked why Sol didn't obey her mind control. Sol reveals that he was the prototype Gear, meaning Justice was actually the 2nd Gear ever made. She wishes that "the three of them could have chatted one last time," and dies from her wounds.

Much like Kliff, AC+R was her final gameplay outing; she does not feature as a playable character in any iteration of Xrd. There are, however, rather major storyline and thematic reasons for this, which are covered below and in certain Xrd character entries.

Justice has been an unlockable bonus character since GG1, but due to her console exclusivity and lack of balance compared to the rest of the cast, she was banned in tournaments. This changed with Accent Core +R, which finally saw the first competitively-balanced version of Justice. She is a zoning character who can have multiple slow-moving projectiles on the screen at once, creating an obstacle course that her opponent is forced to navigate cautiously. Combined with an arsenal of damaging, sweeping normals, Justice can completely dominate the neutral space. The catch? The insane mobility she once possessed as a boss and secret character is now gone. She cannot run or airdash, and is only able to double jump. With the biggest hitbox in the game bar none, this makes it very hard for Justice to defend herself if the opponent does manage to get in her face.

The Antichrist: She chose to be this to mankind and the Messianic Archetype to the Gears.
Back from the Dead: The Conclave's plan in Xrd involves resurrecting her. That Man, following her death in The Missing Link, has similarly been trying to put together a plan to bring back her mind, allowing her to be herself again rather than the Greater-Scope Villain's slave.
Badass Arm-Fold: One of her victory poses.
Badass Army: Commanded the Gears in the Second Holy War, who went to war against the whole world and were doing pretty well.
Become a Real Boy: At the end of -REVELATOR-'s story mode, she merges with Jack-O' and becomes Aria truly reborn.
Berserk Button: Surviving Japanese people will drive her into a murderous rage.
Brainwashed and Crazy: REVELATOR reveals that Justice's entire rebellion and mass genocide was the result of mental corruption suffered when the Universal Will invaded her mind during her first activation, not helped at all by Asuka also having to trigger her armor's Gamma Ray function to forciby destroy Tokyo so as to prevent the mass Gearization of the world's most populous city and Aria/Justice having a front row seat to it. The Universal Will proceeded to fill her with ideas of vengeance and hate, exploiting the fact that Gears were intended as weapons by the world's governments, in order to enact its plan to Kill All Humans and leave a world of only Gears, or rather, magical beings. The rest is history.
Combat Stilettos: No, seriously. She has them.
Death of Personality: Confirmed by -STRIVE-. The person who was once Aria Hale effectively died the moment the Universal Will tried to use her new body as a conduit to manifest itself and she was forced to fire on Japan. All that remained afterward was an Empty Shell who possessed a horribly corrupted fusion of faint traces of Aria's memories and the raison d'etre of the Universal Will. Thus, Justice was born.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: She has a large, blue, and very phallic spike jutting from her crotch. Her Dust attack also involves her bending backward and digging her pointed tail into the ground, and it comes out pointed at...that area, launching the opponent into the sky.
Dying as Yourself: Unlike her normal megalomaniac tendencies, just before succumbing to her wounds in Missing Link, she seems to have a moment of lucidity were she happily recalls the early days of the Gear Project. -REVELATOR-'s reveal that Justice was Brainwashed and Crazy courtesy of the Universal Will retroactively makes this a rare moment her original personality got through the Will's corruption.
Justice: That's right... Heh heh. H... How could I have forgotten you? If only we could have talked one last time... Just the three of us...
Early-Installment Weirdness: Justice had a fairly male-ish (or at least very androgynous-leaning-male) voice in the first Guilty Gear, was referred to with male pronouns in the English release, and Justice's quote in the GGX intro movie (superimposed over footage of the Gear attack where Baiken lost her eye) was voiced in English by a gravelly, vaguely Texan man. Further games made it very clear she was female, and had her voiced by female actresses.
Empty Shell:
- Her clones created by Crow are a bunch of empty mechanical copies without the original's mind.
- In Xrd, the resurrected version of her doesn't have a will of its own, requiring one of Valentines to merge with it to actually do much of anything. It's also revealed Justice herself started as a mindless replacement body, before the Gear Maker tried to fuse his friend into it.
Evil Redhead: A Big Bad with a great big head of long red hair.
Fantastic Racism: She hates Japan and what it stands for, and commanded her Gears to carry out a genocide on its people. Or at least, this is what her damaged mind came up with as a justification; in one of Asuka's more desperate moves, he triggered the Justice Armor's Gamma Ray modules to launch the attack on Japan while not just Aria, but much of the Tokyo metroplex was being forcibly Gear-converted by the Will, and the poor Japanese were being turned into living bombs. It was that or face the eradication of mankind, but regardless, the situation did even more damage to an already-under-attack Aria's psyche.
Final Boss: She's the last opponent you have to face in Missing Link, and considerably more powerful than all the other fighters.
Four-Star Badass: The leader of the Gears' army who is the most powerful among them and turned the war against humanity into a Curb-Stomp Battle.
Go Mad from the Revelation: Her Start of Darkness. She realized that Gears were created to be weapons of war, and she tried to Screw Destiny by inflicting mass genocide on the humans who used her and her kind. In theory.
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Justice's Story Mode in AC+ ends with her final fight against Sol. Even if you win, Sol still gets his Heroic Second Wind and finishes her off in a cutscene.
Hellish Pupils: A close examination of her artwork and portraits show that unlike other humanoid Gears, Justice has reptilian slitted pupils which mark her as the inhuman leader of the Gears and serve as a reminder of how like all Gears she's been crossed with animal DNA.
Hive Queen: All Gears made after her feel an instinctive need to obey her. Which also makes the prototype Gear Sol the one superpowered Gear she can't control.
Humans Are Bastards: She justifies her actions to Ky by telling how humans treated her as nothing more than a weapon, not caring about her mind or soul. This is... true as it goes, and she does appear to believe it genuinely, but there's more going on.
Humongous Mecha: Of the Neon Genesis Evangelion variety: A gigantic artificial lifeform wearing a suit of Powered Armor. She's one of the largest characters in the game, with only other giants like Potemkin and Faust rivaling her, at least until Xrd makes her actually mecha-sized. Further details, however, reveal that her new design seen in Xrd is actually a "shell" that requires a core to animate it, which the Conclave (and later the Universal Will, who has secretly been manipulating them), and That Man all want to use for their own purposes. The -STRIVE- prequel comics reveal that her old core is actually her pre-Xrd design, and that was the original Powered Armor vessel that was intended to hold Aria's soul, thus making both of her designs canon.
Kamehame Hadoken: The Gamma Ray attack is a giant blast of energy that covers the screen.
Killed Off for Real: Canonically gets killed at the end of Missing Link by Sol Badguy, finally bringing an end to her threat. It sticks a good 16 years, till Xrd, where the Big Bad revives a mindless copy of her to enact its Evil Plan.
Kiai: Shouts "SHAAAAAAAAAA!!!" in some of her attacks.
Light Is Not Good: She is covered in white and blue armor, has Laser Blades and tons of Frickin' Laser Beams for her moves, and is also the genocidal Big Bad of the first game.
Mighty Glacier: In order for Justice to be tournament-viable, Accent Core +R had to nerf her from Lightning Bruiser verging onto SNK Boss levels to this. Despite gaining multiple variations to her bomb special, she lost her ability to dash, and is comparable in speed to Potemkin. All of this whereas she lost almost none of her damage-dealing capabilities.
Mind Rape: It's implied early on that the controls put on her drove her insane. -REVELATOR- later confirms that, indeed, one of the reasons for her genocidal tendencies was the Universal Will forcefully invading her from the Backyard when she first gained consciousness, leading to a massive influx of information contaminating and possibly painfully reacting with her Gear cells while she stands there, helpless.
More than Mind Control: All Gears made after her have a genetic link to her, allowing her to control them to do whatever she wants. Sol, being the very first Gear, is immune to this.
Only One Name: As a magical bioweapon, she only has the designation "Justice" rather than a given and family name like humans. In her original life, her name was Aria Hale. It's implied in the -STRIVE- recap comics that "Justice'' is a Nom de Guerre based on what she thinks she's trying to accomplish.
Powered Armor: Xrd's Story Mode reveals that the "Justice" we see in earlier games was in fact an advanced protective suit. Didn't do much to protect her from the Universal Will invading her mind, though. The -STRIVE- comics also confirm that the powered armor served as the "core" of the larger, mecha-sized Justice now commonly seen.
Promoted to Playable: As of Guilty Gear XX, in which she is an unlockable character. From a competitive standpoint, however, it wasn't until Accent Core + R that she became allowed in tournaments, due to her rebalancing.
Retcon: Hoo boy, Justice has had a lot of these over the years, but the most prominent one is her design. Originally appearing as a sort of bestial Powered Armor that looked similar to a combination between a Gundam and an Evangelion Unit, Xrd -SIGN- later changed her design to something more resembling an Eva Unit, or even an outright Angel. Then it was revealed in Xrd -REVELATOR- that the new design is actually a shell, powered by a core. It was then hinted at, and finally confimed in the -STRIVE- prequel comics, that her first core was, in fact, her original Powered Armor self.
Samus Is a Girl: Translation issues meant Justice was referred to as, and voiced by, a male in the first game, though she was referred to with neutral pronouns in the original Japanese. Later games do make it clear Justice is female, though it's still hard to tell under her armour.
Shoulders of Doom: The doom of humanity is supported by giant metal shoulders that have Wave Motion Guns in them.
Slow Laser: Her special moves has her shooting glowing energy projectiles.
SNK Boss: It took multiple revisions of her tuning for Justice to become legal for Tournament Play for a reason. In her first appearance as the Final Boss, her mobility, reach, defense, and attack power are all above average. She has a universal Counter-Attack. She has a special that fills the entire screen, another that basically deals a 15+ hit auto-combo, and various other abilities no other character possesses.
Statuesque Stunner: Played with. Justice towers over everyone not named Faust or Potemkin at a staggering 7'8", Though it's unclear how much of that is her Powered Armor and how much it's the actual Gear inside the armor. (Dizzy for instance assumes a much taller demonic form when tapping into her full gear powers in her X and XX instant kill.) Aria pre-Gearization is usually depicted as being on the somewhat shorter end of the spectrum, usually being about a head and a half shorter than Sol/Frederick, but has never been given a canon height; the nearest we have is Jack-O' at 165cm (5'5). We've also never seen Aria/Justice out'' of the armor post-Gearization, though.
The Reveal: As revealed in the Xrd games, she was actually an attempt to revive Aria Hale, one of the three scientists who led the first Gear Project alongside Sol/Fredrick and That Man/Asuka. Aria had contracted a fatal, incurable disease and been cryogenically frozen in 2014. Decades later, with no cure in sight, Asuka, now sole head of the second Gear Project, decided to make use of the magitek gear cells they had researched together to create a new Empty Shell body for Aria that she could then be merged into. As such, Asuka subverted the project's research into creating a "commander gear" for military applications to instead create a clone body for his friend. However, when Asuka attempted to fuse Aria into the "commander gear" as part of her first "activation test", an Eldritch Abomination calling itself The Universal Will, from the dimension magic originates from, tried to use the body as a foothold into our reality and Kill All Humans instead. As a result, the Gear who became Justice only gained part of Aria's soul and mind, horribly corrupted by the Will's influence. Also, to stop the Will, who had gained control of a portion of the Gear cells and was using them to infect random parts of the Japanese population and turn them into demonic anti-matter bombs, Asuka then forcibly activated Justice's weapons systems to destroy the country to wipe out any infected. For tropes applying to her afterwards, see the Aria section on this page.
The Unfettered: She will do anything to wipe out all Japanese people from the face of the Earth, even after Japan itself had been obliterated. This is, again, a combination of her Will-infected psyche and her attempt to rationalize what she experienced during her activation.
Walking Spoiler: She didn't used to be this, but a number of questions about her cropped up over the years in the XX games; Xrd then provided a lot of answers, some of which were curveballs of previous expectations, and these revelations are rather deep in the story modes of, fittingly, -REVELATOR- specifically. This necessitates putting a decent bit of recent information behind tags.
Wave-Motion Gun: Her Gamma Ray, a powerful ray of concentrated radiation, decimated Japan. It's fairly well implied that the Gamma Ray system interacting with people who were in the middle of forcible conversion to anti-matter bombs did not help the devastation in the least bit.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Same deal as with Testament. On the surface.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Waged the hundred year war against humans and Gears that came to be known as the crusades after discovering that she was nothing more than a disposable weapon for the humans.
Worthy Opponent: Compliments Kliff Undersn on his abilities despite being a human in her Accent Core Plus storyline, right before she kills him. She even sounds sad at how time has left Kliff a shell of his former self, no longer able to even land a blow on her.
You Don't Look Like You: She seems to have taken on an entirely different appearance in Xrd. Then again, in-universe, President Vernon says that she looks exactly as she did during the Crusades. The prequel comics for -STRIVE- confirm that this is a partial Retcon of her older appearance, with her original design still being canon as the "core" of the much larger, more Evangelion-like new design.

Baiken

Break off all vexations. You are not the exile.

^Xrd

^{Original design}

I humbly ask, I humbly ask: though 'tis sudden, where doth lie Hell?
Whilst the demons laugh, the people weep. Since it doth lie outside the bounds of virtuous deeds,
I shall undertake the task of felling the Netherworld.
For I am a vulgar samurai of lowest rank.
I have not intent of dying the honorable death of a warrior.

Voiced by:
JP: Satomi Koorogi (GG), Miho Sudo (X-XX), Chizu Yonemoto (AC), Mayumi Asano (Xrd -REVELATOR- onward)
EN: Patty Mattson
KR: Bona Kim

Playable in: The Missing Link, X, XX, Xrd REV 2, -STRIVE- (DLC)

Profile:

Height: 5'4"

Weight: 99lbs

Gender: Female

Blood type: B

Birthplace: Japan

Date of Birth: March 5th

Hobbies: Drinking

Likes: Sake bottles

Dislikes: Tanuki statues

Character themes:
Momentary Life

, Ricochet

, 六文 -ROKUMON-

, Mirror of the World

, Smoking Hot

^note

Shared character theme:
Drumhead Pulsation

(With Chipp and Anji)

A young (looking?) Japanese woman with a traumatic past who wants revenge against That Man. During the Crusades her entire village was razed to the ground by Gears, and she lost an arm and an eye. She did witness the presence of That Man, though, and swore to kill him one day. She is a childhood friend of Anji Mito, who she views as getting in the way of her revenge since he also wants to meet That Man out of curiosity. She is one of the relentless pursuers of I-No in XX, who would lead her to That Man. In Accent Core + she starts getting an addiction to killing things, and Anji becomes worried that her newfound passion will consume her.

While absent for Xrd -SIGN-, Baiken does make an appearance in -REVELATOR-'s story mode working with May, Jam, and Kum Haehyun, suggesting that she won't be out of action for long. Sure enough, those suggestions were indeed proven true when she was confirmed as a returning character in an update to -REVELATOR- called Rev2, added in Spring 2017. She would later be announced to return in -STRIVE- as the fourth DLC character in January 2022. After the time skip between XX and Xrd, Baiken appears to have settled down somewhat, having returned to the Japanese Colony on Anji's persuasion. Upon hearing of That Man's sudden appearance again, however, she gets back into action in search for him once more. This continues into -STRIVE-, where she is now joined by a mysterious girl named Delilah, who has more in common with her than she sould like to admit, especially regarding their goals against That Man...

Baiken is a high-risk high-reward character who plays around her weak defense stats and rather linear offensive tools by fishing for attacks to break through, and pays back in kind with very damaging combos. She has a unique Guard Cancel mechanic that allows her to cancel her block-stun into special attacks, making her threatening against those who attempt to pressure her heavily. This, combined with a blocking dash makes her extremely tough to control, and her ability to counter moves demands that the player have both thorough match-up specific knowledge and very good reaction times.

Historically one of the more mechanically-demanding characters in the series, -STRIVE- has given significant changes to Baiken's fighting style in order to make her easier to comprehend. While she retains her general high-risk, high-reward feel from previous games, her Guard Canceling has been replaced with a new mechanic involving her Kabari. By landing her Kabari special move or her throw, Baiken now attaches a rope to her opponent. While she is tethered to them, she gains access to new mobility options, granting her powerful mixups. As a replacement for her Azami technique, she now gains a more traditional Counter-Attack which deals a significant amount of damage on a successful parry.

The Alcoholic: While we never see it, Baiken is implied to be a heavy drinker, with drinking being listed as her only hobby, and her only listed like simply being sake bottles. She starts to carry a huge sake jug around as of her -REVELATOR- debut and whips it out for Respects or winning a round.
Accent Adaptation: Is given a Southern accent in the English dub of -STRIVE-.
Action Mom: Is, for some reason, mistaken for one by Sin. Sin thinks eyepatches mean pregnancy. It's a long story. After taking Delilah under her wing, she plays this a bit more straight.
All Asians Wear Conical Straw Hats: Shown in Rev2 to wear a roningasa, as per her trailer-given title of "the lone samurai".
Ambiguously Human: -STRIVE- has opened up the possibility that Baiken may not be entirely human. When hit by Faust's Overdrive, her face morphs into the visage of a Hannya mask, and as shown through her interactions with Nagoriyuki, he senses there is something different about her through her swordsmanship.
Ambidextrous Sprite: Particularly notable in that she's missing an eye and an arm and they switch sides depending on which way she's facing. She keeps this trait in Rev2 despite the switch to 3D graphics (including the eye, which has no impact on gameplay).
Anti-Hero: Her fight-happy nature makes her one of the more morally questionable characters in the Guilty Gear series. However, she's out for That Man, so she's technically on the same side as the good guys.
Ax-Crazy: One of her Accent Core + paths explores this possibility. However, this ends up averted canonically.
Berserk Button: Anything to do with Gears or That Man.
Blemished Beauty: She has a scar over her left eye, which she therefore can't open (she gets an eyepatch in later entries), and lacks her right arm, making her the poster child for Handicapped Badass, but otherwise she's quite a looker.
Breakout Character: Baiken has always been among the most recognizable characters the series has but never too much around the cream of the crop like Sol, Ky, Dizzy, etc. However, over the years she has grown more and more popular for reasons sometimes unrelated to her role in the story or gameplay style, her design and personality has earned Baiken a lot of fans by the time of Xrd, where newcomers and outsiders were taken into Guilty Gear solely for Baiken alone, to the point that ArcSys is very confident in lending Baiken for other video game series as a guest, and is a selling factor for separate DLC in Guilty Gear itself. She even gets the honor of being the very first Guilty Gear character to appear as a Guest Fighter in another fighting game series.
Character Development: Baiken's actions in -REVELATOR- seem to suggest that the Accent Core + ending where she goes back to friendlier terms with Anji is canon. During the 5 year timeskip between AC and Xrd, she has settled down in the Colony and works with Haehyun in order to save her fellow Japanese. This continues well into -STRIVE-, where her interactions with many characters are a lot more mellow, much like with Sol. Even her new Image Song reflects her newfound, "enlightened" status.
Cherry Blossoms: Where do they keep coming from?
Coat Cape: She's got one on her new design in Rev 2.
Cool Big Sis: Delilah sees her as this during Another Story, and by the end it becomes genuine.
The Comically Serious: She keeps herself as serious as she can in an environment as... BOMBASTIC as the plot of Rev2. As a result, her reactions to things like Faust's kancho or May's and Dizzy's new Instant Kills are among the most memorable.
Counter-Attack: A major part of her kit. She is able to Lag Cancel her own block-stun into special attack, turning her opponent's momentum back onto themselves providing the player is aware of incoming attack patterns. Later games expand on this by giving her side-swapping command dash and actual parry move, punishing opponent's pressure game further. She gets a devastating counter grab in -STRIVE- with accordingly tight timing for it to work.
Corrupted Character Copy: To Himura Kenshin. The designers even stated that Baiken was based on him, and it shows, most notably having a very similar design to him, but that's where the similarities end. While Kenshin strives to be as much of a pacifist as possible and sought a path of redemption for his actions as the infamous Battousai the Manslayer, Baiken was focused solely on revenge and didn't care all that much who got in her way, and some of her non-canon endings in Accent Core+ had her go off the deep end and become villainous. That said, starting from Xrd onwards she gets significant Character Development into a much more heroic character, putting her on a somewhat similar path to Kenshin.
Dark Action Girl: Turns villainous in one of her (non-canon) endings in Accent Core +.
Dark and Troubled Past : She has a VERY traumatic backstory involving a Gear attack on her home colony that killed her entire family, all when she was just a little kid.
Difficult, but Awesome: Baiken is a fighter of extremes, boasting great range, power, and combo potential at the cost of lengthy endlag and limited defensive tools. Playing her well means being good at calling your opponent's attacks and responding with the appropriate counters and being very selective about when to go on the offensive so that she doesn't land herself in trouble.
Early-Bird Cameo: She does show up next to Anji during -STRIVE-'s epilogue before she became a DLC fighter.
Epic Flail: Several of her slash attacks have her fire out a mace on a chain from her left sleeve.
Eyepatch of Power: In -REVELATOR-, Baiken finally got an eyepatch to cover her missing eye, though said eyepatch is glass for some reason (having seemingly been repurposed from a pair of goggles) and so doesn't actually cover her eye.
Expository Pronoun: Befitting her personality as The Lad-ette, she refers to herself with the very masculine pronoun "ore" in Japanese.
Expy: Physically, Baiken was initially based on Himura Kenshin, just genderswapped. According to the designers, it came about when one of them took a glance at Himura and thought he was a girl.
Fanservice Pack: Got a SERIOUS one in -REVELATOR- going from "decent" to "one of the most well-endowed women in the series", and only progresses from there on.
Fiery Redhead: She has reddish-pink hair and a very no-nonsense, stubborn personality.
Fights Like a Normal: With the exception of a single attack that uses ki, Baiken has no supernatural abilities or powers to speak of, yet still proves to be a very skilled fighter, getting by with pure skill and weaponry.
Genre Motif: Befitting her feudal-Japanese aesthetic, her themes combine both the series' standard metal and Japanese folk instruments.
Giant Space Flea Out Of Nowhere: In the original Guilty Gear, she comes across like this since compared to the other secret characters, Testament & Justice, who are both bosses in Arcade Mode. Baiken more or less comes out of nowhere with no explanation who she is and where she came from. This along with her androgynous appearance led to some players at the time assuming that she was "That Man" mentioned in Sol's ending.
Gilded Cage: The Japanese colony is this for her and Anji. There are only a small number of Japanese people left in the world after the destruction of Japan, so the world governments created multiple Japanese colonies as a last resort to keep them alive. Unfortunately, no one is allowed into the colony without special permission, and its residents are not allowed outside period. In the story mode of -REVELATOR-, it's revealed that this was done for an ulterior purpose: to ensure that none of the Japanese would be able to escape being turned into living bombs by Ariels.
The Gloves Come Off: Inverted specifically for Anji. Baiken is usually a No-Nonsense Nemesis who fights wholeheartedly for victory or even to kill; but it is implied that when she fights Anji, she will - whether deliberately or subconsciously - hold back her usual strength. In earlier games, this was implied through the story paths where she comes across and defeats Anji, but would not commit to fully striking Anji down, even when he deliberately asked her to do so such as in Accent Core+. In -STRIVE-, this is mostly shown through Anji's unique interactions and quotes with Baiken:
Anji: [taunt] If you're pulling your punches, keep it up!
Anji: [win quote if he defeats Baiken] Are you falling for me?
Good Is Not Soft: Outside of a few routes in Accent Core, Baiken is not a bad person. She is however an incredibly dangerous swordfighter with a very crude, rough-around-the-edges demeanor.
Gory Discretion Shot: During her Instant Kill move. Also when she kills I-no in a story scene in one path of each of them in Accent Core +.
Guest Fighter:
- She's a playable fighter in Samurai Shodown (2019) as DLC.
- She shows up for the Guilty Gear crossover event in The King of Fighters All Star.
Hammerspace: Her right sleeve where she's missing an arm carries a ridiculous amount of firepower that couldn't possibly be there, like a grappling claw, a whole other sword, and a cannon the size of Baiken's torso.
Handicapped Badass: Despite missing an arm and an eye, and lacking the supernatural abilities that most of the other characters have, Baiken can still hold her own. Indeed, her presence in the first game was as a bonus boss!
Hey, You!: Baiken has a tendency to call people by simple terms instead of trying to remember their names.
Hyperspace Arsenal: Her armless sleeve may not contain her arm anymore, but Baiken is able to hide several weapons up it, including but not limited to: claws and blades on chains, a rotating blade, a giant fan, and a dragon head cannon.
Hypocritical Humor: She thinks Millia could use a haircut, despite herself sporting Barbarian Longhair that only gets more outrageous as the series goes on.
Iaijutsu Practitioner: She always has her sword sheathed before attacking, drawing, slashing, and then sheathing it back in an instant.
Image Song: Mirror of The World.
Katanas Are Just Better: Baiken's main weapon is a katana that she uses with deadly proficiency despite her handicap.
Kimono Fanservice: Kimonos are not exactly supposed to flaunt a woman's figure. Hers do. A lot.
Jidaigeki: Her new intro and winpose in Rev 2 are done in this style, complete with dramatic narration. -STRIVE- one-ups this by making this have a chance of overriding the usual "Mankind cannot change society" intro, as well as the outro sequence announcing the winner.
The Lad-ette: She's a legendarily skilled samurai, drinks and smokes, is quite crass when she wants to be and until -STRIVE- followed a strict I Work Alone policy. In X, she even claims that she (metaphorically) gave up being a woman a long time ago.
Magic Skirt: ...but her opponents probably get to see everything. No longer the case after Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, which gave her sarashi Modesty Shorts.
Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The tough, hard as nails Masculine Girl to Anji's flamboyant and graceful Feminine Boy. Notably she has a very feminine body type complimented by rather large breasts, but she's very clearly The Lad-ette. In turn, Anji has an extremely fit, masculine bodyplan despite his more feminine style and character, creating an odd sort of symmetry between the two.
Modesty Shorts: Previous games, using sprites, could always keep what was under her kimono hidden. With the move to 3D models for Xrd, she now wears sarashi shorts.
Morality Chain: Implied to be one for Anji, especially in story of the earlier games. Anji was originally portrayed as amiable but also somewhat selfish and amoral - he stole the Zessen, a part of the Outrage weapon meant to protect his colony from further Gear attacks, simply because he wanted a weapon he could use while running away. His original motivation was pure curiosity, he wanted to find That Man (the one thought to have destroyed his and Baiken's original colony) and learn the truth about the Gears, and was even tempted by That Man to join him in exchange for this knowledge and possible immortality. Even Slayer warned Anji that his desire to satisfy his own curiosity would only give him regrets. But when Anji meets Baiken, and realizes that he would end up being in constant conflict with her if he stays with That Man, he immediately stops working for him and resolves to only focus on Baiken's well-being and keeping her safe. Most of Anji's most charitable actions (such as asking Baiken to check-in with their colony, or having her take care of Delilah) revolves around improving Baiken's well-being in the process.
Ms. Fanservice: She may be more intimidating and battle-scarred than most examples, but she's still a very attractive woman in a very revealing outfit, and the camera is extremely happy to remind you of this.
The Musketeer: One of her weapons she carries in her sleeve is a dragon-shaped firework launcher which she uses for her aerial Dust attack. Xrd also gives her a flintlock-looking cannon she can use as her Counter-Attack, which gets promoted to an Overdrive in -STRIVE- where she launches a firework at her foe.
Nothing Up My Sleeve: Just how many weapons does she have in there?
One-Armed Warrior: Losing an arm has not at all stopped her from being a force to be reckoned with using the remaining one.
The Only One: An interaction between her and Happy Chaos introduced with Asuka's release into Season 2 reveals that Baiken is the only character who Chaos fears, because she's undergone Character Development by that point and no longer desires revenge against him. There's also a subtle implication he might actualy feel some remorse over killing her family.
The Paralyzer: One of her signature supers is a guard cancel counter that can disable the opponent's ability to move or defend themselves for a brief period.
Parental Abandonment: Her parents were killed during the destruction of their colony 20 years ago by Happy Chaos, leaving her with one eye, one arm, and hungry for revenge.
Pet the Dog: Her entire role in -STRIVE- is this, as she becomes a guardian figure for Bedman's sister, Delilah. This relationship is what leads to her softening up and moving on from her trauma.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Her remaining eye has a red iris, and she's a VERY dangerous mix of Action Girl and Sociopathic Hero.
Revenge: She's made it her entire life's mission to find That Man and make him pay for killing her family.
Revenge Before Reason: Her vendetta against Gears in general and That Man (Happy Chaos) causes her to brush aside concern for others that get in her way.
Revenge Is Not Justice: The events of Another Story finally make Baiken realize that a life lived solely for revenge is not worth pushing away those who care for you and throwing away your humanity, and only leads to self-destruction as it almost results in Delilah, who was entrusted to Baiken's care by Anji and who eventually came to see her as a Cool Big Sis, Dying Alone. Baiken ultimately decides to start living for herself, giving up on her revenge to instead travel the world with Delilah.
Reverse Grip: Most of the time, given that she only has one arm.
Rugged Scar: Has a deep gash running vertically over her left eye, which is permanently shut. She covers it up with a glass eyepatch starting with Xrd.
Samurai Ponytail: Not only does she dress and fight like an old-school samurai (as much as she can with just one arm), but she keeps her hair as in a big, bushy ponytail.
School Uniforms are the New Black: Her updated design in Rev 2 shows her wearing what resembles a Gakuran over her kimono, complete with a skull patch on its sleeves.
Skeletons in the Coat Closet: She has a skull patch on her Coat Cape in her updated design.
Smoking Is Cool: Smokes a pipe as one of her taunts.
Sociopathic Hero: Crosses into this in Accent Core + when she kills I-No, eventually becoming a wanted murderer.
Spared, but Not Forgiven: As of -STRIVE- Baiken has chosen to stop pursuing her goal of vengeance. Not because she's forgiven the perpetrator, but for the sake of living on her own terms.
Spin Attack: "Youzansen", a purely airborne special, has Baiken sweep a massive radius around her with a blade. It's very effective at both spacing and mixing up grounded foes.
Suddenly Blonde: An odd example. The pink-haired Baiken used to be an alternate palette in The Missing Link, while her actual dye job was close to Kenshin Himura, who she expy'd from. Brown hair (as well as her mild voice a-la Kenshin) was eliminated from Baiken's canon design since Guilty Gear X, but though is still around as its own alternate palette.
Supermodel Strut: Her new forward walk animation in Rev 2 is an exaggerated confident swagger with tons of Jiggle Physics. It should be noted that it's a Shout-Out to a confident samurai sway.
There Are No Therapists: Even with the loss of science during the war, nobody tried to do anything for her, who lost an eye and an arm and witnessed her parents' deaths during battle when she was just a little girl. Which is even more jarring considering she's Japanese, who are treated as international treasures.
Three-Strike Combo: Her overdrive, "Tsurane Sanzu-watashi", is a powerful string of sword blows, the last one manifesting a dark field behind straight out of a samurai flick to give her final strike extra impact.
Took a Level in Badass: Her interactions with Nagoriyuki in -STRIVE- seem to imply that Baiken has become a "weak point diviner" like himself.
Took a Level in Kindness: After her Darker and Edgier streak in the Accent Core series, Baiken's considerably mellowed out in the Xrd series, mostly. After the events of -STRIVE- she's chosen to move on from her quest for revenge and become a mentor figure for Delilah, effectively taking yet another level in kindness.
True Final Boss: Back in the first game. She can only be fought in the The Missing Link if the player beats the Arcade Mode as either Sol or Ky without using any continues. After the credits roll, the fight against Baiken will begin. The player can lose the fight and continue an infinite amount of times. Good luck!
Unexplained Accent: Downplayed. Her English voice actress gives her a slight but noticeable southern American accent. In Japanese, she speaks with a Kansai accent, which is often treated as the equivalent, but many people might not know this.
The Unfettered: Anything is permissible so long as she has the opportunity to kill That Man.
Variable-Length Chain: The length of her weapon chains are usually depicted as being fairly short, but Another Story in -STRIVE- has her not only wrapping her club chain around May from a notable distance, but then wrapping the chain around Mayship several times.
Weak, but Skilled: Has no powers at all, save for the Ki powers that she uses for one move, but is very skilled in the use of the katana alongside with other weapons she stored in the sleeve of her severed arm to the point that she can easily kill Gears.
You Monster!: She calls Order-Sol this in her win quote against him and tells him not to pretend to be human. He is a Gear, after all.
You Talk Too Much!: She says this to Ky in her win quote against him, stating that she doesn't care about his sense of justice, nor should anyone else.
You Will Not Evade Me: In -STRIVE-, her "Kabari" special and standard grab ties a rope to her opponent, which limits the distance both players can be from each other for a few seconds.

Characters / Guilty Gear: The Missing Link

May

Millia Rage

Zato-1 and Eddie

Tropes associated with Zato-1:

Tropes associated with Eddie himself:

Tropes associated with Zato and Eddie's later revival:

Potemkin

Chipp Zanuff

Tropes associated with Dr. Baldhead:

Tropes associated with Faust:

Axl Low

Kliff Undersn

Unlockable Characters

Testament

Justice (Aria Hale)

Baiken

Alternative Title(s): Guilty Gear Faust

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Index

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Characters / Guilty Gear: The Missing Link

Edit Locked

May

Millia Rage

Zato-1 and Eddie

Tropes associated with Zato-1:

Tropes associated with Eddie himself:

Tropes associated with Zato and Eddie's later revival:

Potemkin

Chipp Zanuff

Tropes associated with Dr. Baldhead:

Tropes associated with Faust:

Axl Low

Kliff Undersn

Unlockable Characters

Testament

Justice (Aria Hale)

Baiken

Alternative Title(s): Guilty Gear Faust

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Index

Next