Sol Badguy

Sol Badguy (ソル＝バッドガイ) is a fictional character in Arc System Works's Guilty Gear video game series. He first appeared in the 1998 video game Guilty Gear as the main character and namesake. In the series, he is a bounty hunter who has dedicated his life to the destruction of Gears, a race of magical bioweapons that plunged the world into a hundred-year war known as the Crusades. He was once a member of the Sacred Order of the Holy Knights, and this appearance was featured as an another playable character named Order-Sol (聖騎士団ソル).

Sol Badguy, whose real name is Frederick, was named after Freddie Mercury's nickname "Mr. Bad Guy" by Daisuke Ishiwatari, the series' creator, who also provides his voice in video games. Despite of critics about being a generic character, the video game reviewers has commended his name's choice, as well as his relationship with his main rival Ky Kiske, that was compared to that of other characters. Sol's fighting abilities was also the subject of the reviewers, receiving both praise and criticism.

Creation and design
Creator Daisuke Ishiwatari designed Sol in many ways to reflect as his alter ego, and also recorded Sol's in-game voice acting (the voice actor for Guilty Gear XX's story mode and drama CDs however, is done by Hikaru Hanada). Ishiwatari's favorite band is Queen, and he thus put in Sol's profile that he is a fan of Queen, and named Sol Badguy, whose real name is Frederick (or Freddie for short), after Freddie Mercury, whose nickname was "Mr. Bad Guy".

Appearances
Introduced in the first installment of the series (1998), he was one of the lead scientists of the Gear project, and also the prototype Gear from over a hundred years before the events of the Guilty Gear games. As a prototype, he is immune to the orders of Commander Gears. He was personally acquainted with That Man prior to the Crusades. As Frederick, Sol created the "Outrage", which he called a supreme Anti-Gear weapon. The Outrage has eight components called "Jinki" (Godlike Weapons), which greatly amplify their wielders' magical ability. Roughly half a century later, he was himself recruited into the order, as a bounty hunter named "Sol Badguy." Sol took part in the Crusades, and at this time he was a member of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights (Seikishidan). He acquired the nickname "Flame of Corruption" (背徳の炎) during that time. However, he later became disenchanted with the methods of the Sacred Order, and fled the order, taking with him the Fūenken (封炎剣), which the Holy Knights had come to consider a sacred treasure. The theft earned him Ky Kiske's enmity.

In 2175, Sol faced Justice directly. The two fought, and Justice won—in the process, discovering that Sol was a Gear. Justice attempted to assert her power as a Commander Gear to control Sol, but was unable to do so. Exploiting her confusion and weakness from the fight, the Holy Order, led by Ky, sealed Justice away, bringing the war to an end. However, a Gear named Testament began a plan to resurrect Justice, and to stop it, the Union of Nations held a tournament. Canon states that Sol was the winner of the Tournament, and it is here that Justice discovers that Sol is, in fact, Frederick. Justice, in her dying words, comments that she wishes that "the three of us" could talk one last time, and Sol swears to kill That Man.

In Guilty Gear X (2000), Sol has three endings, all of which involve a fight against Dizzy, who has a half-million dollar bounty on her head. However, he spares her life in all of them, losing against her in his second ending, and judging that she is not a threat to the world in the other two.

In Guilty Gear XX (2002), his storyline here involves chasing down I-No. His first ending, after he defeats I-No, leads to a direct confrontation with That Man who casually deflects all Sol's attacks, and says that Sol is needed because soon a greater battle than the Crusades will occur. In Sol's second ending, Slayer informs him of the Post-War Administration Bureau's interest in Dizzy, which catches his interest. In the third, he fights Dizzy, who had been possessed by Necro after I-No knocked her off the Mayship, and sends Dizzy on her way to meet Johnny and May.

In Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus (2008), Sol has two endings. In one, I-No throws him back in time to fight with his past self, Order-Sol. After both are weakened from the battle, I-No reappears to murder Order-Sol—an alternative past version of him—, which, in turn, causes Sol's present form to cease existing. In his other ending, the same set of events play out, but Sol's present form, strangely, is unaffected by his past self's death. After escaping the time rift, Ky confronts and engages him in battle. After the fight, Sol and Ky finally settle their differences and go their separate ways, with Ky asking Sol to promise that they will meet again. Though it is referenced in both Sol and Ky's endings, only Sol's tells the events directly after the battle, implying that Sol was the victor.

In Guilty Gear 2: Overture (2007), Sol Badguy has taken in a young man named Sin as his apprentice, and travels the world with him as bounty hunters. During their journey, he meets Izuna who tells him that a man called Vizel is seeking out and destroying Gears on the orders of Valentine, and that his next target is the kingdom of Illyria. Sol, Sin, and Izuna go to Illyria and find Ky Kiske in a binding spell. With Dr. Paradigm's help they are able to release him. Eventually, they capture Valentine who transforms herself in a monster. Sol fights against her, and after the fight, he finds himself in a white space, unable to return.

Sol was announced as a playable character in the upcoming Guilty Gear Xrd.

He is also a playable character in the spin-off games Guilty Gear Petit (2001), Isuka (2003) Dust Strikers (2006), and Judgment (2006).

Order-Sol
Order-Sol is an alternative past version of the original character. Sol was once a part of the Sacred Order of the Holy Knights, and Order-Sol is a take on what Sol looked like and how he fought during that time. This form also shows a glimpse of Sol's true Gear form when performing one of his special moves.

He first appeared as a playable character in Guilty Gear XX Slash (2005), and subsequently appeared in Guilty Gear XX Λ Core (2006), Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus (2008), and Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus R (2012). In addition to being playable, Order-Sol also appears as a final boss of Guilty Gear XX Slash's Arcade Mode.

Reception
Daisuke Ishiwatari cited Sol as his favorite character several times.

IGN has commented that Sol has a "standard speed and versatility", and called him one of the cast "more generic characters", but also considered Sol is "cool" because he is a good character to play with for newcomers since he is "one of the easier characters to get acquianted [sic] with." He has been praised for his last name's loftiness,  with Eurogamer's calling him "the best-named videogame character of all time." His relation with Ky Kiske has also been commended; Anime News Network described it a "true relationship", and IGN's writer Ryan Clements called their a legendary pair, while Vincent Ingenito of the same site said "Ky and Sol might very well have been the next Ryu and Ken...or at least the next Scorpion and Sub-Zero". On the same subject, GameSpy commented that they "are the closest you'll get to a Ken and Ryu, but they look approximately a thousand times cooler." The option of his alternate form, Order-Sol, was praised by IGN that remarked he "is utterly fantastic and makes a great addition to the cast".

Thunderbolt Games listed his Dust Loop as one of the "Fighting Games' Most Infamous Combos", stating it is "the biggest crowd upsetting combo in X2", and describing it as "one of history's most boring and abused combos". It was also noted that Arc Systems tried to balance the game, and the site commmented that the Dust Loop will not help that happen. On other hand, GamesRadar named him the fifth best character in fighting games of all time, adding "Sol and his array of fiery attacks are emblematic", and calling Dust Loop, "one of fighting games' most iconic combos". Similary, but this time in a "Top 50" instead of GamesRadar's "Top 7", he was ranked 34th in Complex's list of "Most Dominant Fighting Game Characters".