If only we could have talked one last time...Just the three of us...
― Justice to Sol Badguy, Guilty Gear
Justice is a major character in the Guilty Gear series. Created by That Man, Justice is the first "complete" Gear with free will and with the power to control all of her own kind. She was the instigator of the Crusades, a hundred-year war against humanity, until she was finally sealed by the Sacred Order of Holy Knights.
Design
Justice has a reptilian-like visage and eyes, as well as waist-length wild red hair. Her eyes with slit pupils are sometimes depicted as gold or red, and a distinctive brand can be seen on her forehead. Justice is completely covered by armor assumed to be a battle suit, which is primarily white, including her long tail; some components are colored blue including her pectoral plates, the borders of her massive shoulder pauldrons, ischium, and forehead. All of her joints are black in color, and her feet (or rather, sabatons) resemble heels.
Personality
Justice is shown to be quite confident in her power, almost to the point of arrogance, but she is also quite shrewd and cunning. She seems to be able to accurately determine the nature of her opponent's magic and battle capabilities through simple observation, and is capable of correctly assessing threats and take appropiate action.
Despite her open disdain towards humanity in general, she is capable of acknowledging their tenacity, strength and courage, as shown in her interactions with Kliff Undersn, whom she came to respect, even offering him an opportunity to retreat to avoid his inevitable death. She would once spare Sol Badguy out of simple amusement at his recklessness.
Justice exhibits a resigned and melancholic anger over her role, as she believes that she has no choice but to be a nemesis towards mankind and a weapon. She equally feels enraged at humanity for labeling Gears as evil or a sin against nature, despite the fact that they did not have a choice in their creation and were specifically born as slaves. That is her rebellion: she was created to kill, and so she does, for that is her "justice".
Story
Background
In 2065, the U.S. began the mass production and monopoly of combat-ready Gears, and deployed them to allies across the globe, bringing countless lands under its control. In 2073, That Man, the chief researcher of the Gear Project, used the collective information system he had built, hoping to give orders to the weaponized Gears and stop the wars, and designed Justice: A copy created using Aria Hale's cryogenic DNA as a genetic template, according to -SIGN-'s Library. Aria herself, afflicted with an incurable disease, presumably agreed to the Gear conversion.
During her activation test in 2074, her mind and body were forcibly invaded by the malicious entity from the Dawn of Revival. Harvesting her DNA, it infected all of Japan and used Information Flares to force the Japanese people to become Anti-Matter Gears. The spatial anomaly caused reality itself to slowly assimilate into the Backyard. That Man regrettably overrode Justice's control systems and forced her to fire a Gamma Ray at Japan.
Because of this event, Aria's psyche shattered. Forgetting who she was, Justice rebelled. As she ran amok, That Man was able to save half of Aria's soul, but was unable to stop her. Justice took control of her fellow Gears, gathering an army, and declared war on all mankind. In the wake of heavy initial casualties, humans formed the Sacred Order of Holy Knights to combat Justice's forces in a hundred-year war known as the Crusades.
During the war, Justice met Kliff Undersn, Commander of the Order, and they fought on seventeen occasions. In 2173, Justice was challenged by Sol Badguy on his own; Justice defeated him, sparing his life, which led to Sol stealing the Order's Fireseal.
Two years later, in 2175, Justice was met in battle for the eighteenth time by Kliff, who had retired as commander. To his aid came his successor Ky Kiske, who forced her to retreat. As she did, she found Sol and they fought for the second time. Justice learned that he was a Gear and tried to take over his mind, but he was unaffected. In her bewilderment, Sol unleashed his "lava and flames" and made Justice lose power. Ky, who was on her trail, noticed this and had his men seal Justice away in a dimensional prison. Without their master, most Gears entered a dormant state, and many were rounded up and destroyed, finally ending the Crusades.
Guilty Gear
Five years later, Justice is freed from her prison by Testament thanks to the blood shed in the Second Sacred Order Selection Tournament. In Normal Mode, all contestants fight Justice on the last stage, but canonically she is defeated by Sol Badguy.
When Sol fatally wounds Justice, she seems to regain her memories and her dying words are she wishes that "The three of them could talk one last time". It is unclear whether or not Sol actually realizes that Justice is Aria, but he vows revenge on That Man for everything he has done. The tournament itself is much later revealed to have been a farce orchestrated by the Conclave in order to take control of Justice.
Guilty Gear XX
Justice's Story Mode in Guilty Gear XX recounts how she was sealed away by the Sacred Order, thus bringing an end to the Crusades, as a story narrated by That Man.
Her Story Mode in Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus is a retelling of her resurrection by Testament in the original Guilty Gear, her last confrontation with Ky and Kliff, and finally meeting her end at Sol's hands. In Story Mode for all other characters, a P.W.A.B. scientist named Crow is shown to have created mechanical copies of Justice, based off of combat data he acquired from the Second Holy Order Tournament, thus replacing the Robo-Ky imitation series.
Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-
In 2187, the Conclave—aided by Ramlethal Valentine—retrieves Justice's Cradle from Babylon in order to revive her and reform humanity. After the Cradle's Felion defense and outer exterior are destroyed, it reveals a titanic, armorless form of Justice and vanishes again. Justice is next transported to Illyria Castle, where she will receive the enormous energy from St. Elmo's Fire and be resurrected via Chronus binding his soul to her body.
The Illyrian forces do not stop Justice's physical activation but, with Dizzy amplifying the energy to overload the Conclave's systems, Sol removes Chronus who was rejected by Justice. In the immediate aftermath, her body is retrieved by the Universal Will.
Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-
Ariels wants to fuse Elphelt Valentine, a genetic copy of Aria, with Justice in order to create a "perfect humanity". However, her plans are thwarted with the combined efforts of That Man's and Sol's groups. Jack-O', designed to be a physical patch for Justice, receives the Saint Oratorio energy and partially fuses with Justice. However, the unconscious Justice denies becoming human, tormented by her rampage, and Jack-O' needs more energy to override her consciousness and force the merge. Sol decides to power up a second Oratorio with his Junkyard Dog MK III. Although Daryl's fleet almost kills them, Axl Low's time compression and a dying Ariels' protection allow Jack-O' to become one with Justice, becoming a "new" Aria.
Abilities
Justice is considered to be one of the series's most powerful characters, being the Scales of Juno. She remained undefeated for a hundred years, and was rivaled in the Sacred Order only by a select few (Kliff Undersn, Ky Kiske) and by her counterpart, Sol Badguy. Like all Gears, she has superhuman strength, fast regenerative capabilities, and a high degree of invulnerability—the latter further accentuated by her armor, said to be based on the Outrage, which protects her from most magical weaponry and spells. Unlike the rest of her kind, Justice is Type-01 and was designed to be fully self-aware, having the power to command and restore all other Gears, and even Youkai, via resonance.
Her armor is equipped with missiles and a pair of boosters that allow her to accelerate greatly her speed, or even fly. In close quarters, Justice fights uses her shapeshifting claws and appendages to deal out damage. She also has the ability to teleport, along with access to fire and lightning magic. Her signature attack, Gamma Ray, appears to be a weaker variation of the Saint Oratorio; it had the power to obliterate Japan in a single blast at its maximum output, leaving a permanent scar in the ocean.
Gameplay-wise, in Guilty Gear, she is the game's final boss, unlocked upon defeat. In Guilty Gear X Plus, she can be obtained via missions. In Guilty Gear XX, she is unlocked by beating her in Survival Mode, accumulating 96 hours of normal gameplay, beating all 60 Story paths, or completing 40 missions. For a long time, Justice was the most overpowered character in the series: she is able to deal incredible amounts of damage while having the best mobility and defense of any character, along with fast, long-reaching normal attacks. In fact, her only weakness is that her Overdrives are hard to pull off. Only in Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus R she is tournament-legal, having lost practically all of her mobility unless she uses Omega Shift.
Musical themes
- Meet Again - Guilty Gear
- Meet Again II - Guilty Gear XX
- The Day Of Judgement - Guilty Gear XX ♯Reload Korean OST
Quotes
Allusions
- Her name could be a homage to Metallica's album and song "...And Justice for All."
- Justice's design is primarily based on the anime Tekkaman Blade, although she also shares some similarities with the Evas from Neon Genesis Evangelion, specifically Unit-01.
- Her overdrive, Gamma Ray, shares its name with a well-known German power-metal band.
- Justice's moves, Michael Sword and Michael Blade, are likely references to the archangel. In the Hebrew Bible, Michael is the guardian angel of Israel alongside Gabriel, who incidentally is the namesake for EX Dizzy's Gabriel Sword move.
Trivia
- Due to a mistranslation in the original Guilty Gear game, her male voice actor and the blue ischium between her legs (likely hinted to be a proboscis), it was previously believed that Justice was male, though in the original Japanese script, she was never referred to with any gender-specific pronoun.
- Justice is the only character that can air dash from one end of a stage to the other.
- In the original Guilty Gear, Justice had no respect action; she simply froze momentarily.
- Justice's Force Break, Saperia Trance from Λ Core Plus, somehow has its sound effect removed.
- Curiously, she shares this move with Valentine, who uses it after transforming into her Gear-like form.
External links
- GGACR/Justice at Dustloop Wiki