| “ | I'll make it back to Megumi. No matter what. That's the promise I made. To myself! | „ |
| ~ Axl Low |
Axl Low is a major supporting character from the Guilty Gear franchise who has appeared in almost every Guilty Gear fighting game since the first Guilty Gear game.
Axl is a time traveller of British descent. He is a gang leader from the 20th century who, due to a twist of fate, got caught into a time slip that bounces him around irregularly through time and space. He wishes to return to his own time period so as to see his girlfriend, Megumi, once again.
Character Design[]
Axl has blue eyes and straight blond hair below the shoulder, always covered by a red bandanna; in the first game, it has tulip pattern on it, while from Xrd onwards, it has a white saltire on it. He is quite muscular and of a fair complexion, and always wears brown boots and fingerless gloves.
In the original Guilty Gear, he wore a tied white tank top, denim vest and shorts, and boots with the Union Jack on their toe boxes. His next outfit—coupled with a seemingly slimmer build—during Guilty Gear X and XX consists of a Union Jack long-sleeved T-shirt, another denim vest, as well as blue jeans.
In Xrd, Axl returns to wearing denim shorts, with two sashes hanging from his belt: one with the Union Jack, the other blue. He also wears a collared white shirt with a black tie, and a rolled-up denim jacket with a white hood. In Strive, Axl sports a dark-grey trouser, and a sleeveless blue shirt with three zipper teeth below a letter jacket. The jacket's body is red with a tartan pattern, while the sleeves are mostly white, and it has black and white print of a clock with "Thanks Luck" written above on the back. His bandana is now black instead of red; the saltire remains white, however.
Personality[]
Despite his troubles, Axl retains an optimistic and amiable nature, being a relentlessly "glass half full" sort of person, living by with "A little sloppiness is just right" as his personal motto. Although he rarely thinks about anything very hard, and is generally content to just get the gist of things or go with the flow, he is very much capable of calmly observing and analyzing a situation and taking the best course of action when faced with a predicament. He is not especially good at constructing logical arguments, however (mostly because he tries to find answers that will satisfy everyone), so other people tend not to take him very seriously.
Compassionate to a fault, if someone is in trouble, Axl cannot ignore them, and is unable to willingly leave someone behind. Though he is always getting into fights, and enjoys sparring with others, whenever he loses the strength to throw a punch, he cannot get anything out but tears. Axl despises the very idea of death, and refuses to take a life regardless of circumstances.
Story[]
Background[]
Sometime in 20th century England, Axl was living his life in one of the worst parts of London's East End. While Axl grew up desensitized to violence, seeing it every day as a warring gang factions fought for control of the town, he abhorred it deeply and was determined to end the assault on his neighborhood peacefully, getting into fights despite his compassionate nature. Somehow, everyone always ended up on his side in the end. Back then, Axl had a girlfriend in Megumi; they swore their futures to one another, throwing away their old lives and names.
Thanks to his unusual martial arts prowess, within half a year, Axl successfully cleaned up his neighborhood without a single casualty, friend or foe. However, in May 14, 1998, at the very moment he was sure the peace would last, he was caught in a "time slip"—a random disturbance in the space-time continuum—and was hurtled 200 years into the future. Unbeknowst to Axl, he had just become a tenuous lifeform, a "possibility" spun out of a broken future, who survived due to the fact that his ID and I-No's overlapped through a freak miracle. As such, all the irregular time laws applied to her were also applied to him.
He arrived in 2178, three years after the Crusades ended. Axl searched for a way back home—to Cotswolds Street—to no avail, and two years passed. Just as he begun to give up hope, Axl heard of a rumor about a fighting tournament in which the champion would get whatever they could wish for.
Guilty Gear[]
Axl enters the Sacred Knights Tournament in hopes of finding a way to get back to his own era. He was apparently led to believe that the winner of the tournament could have a wish granted to them.
Guilty Gear X[]
In the second game, Axl is wandering about, looking for Faust, in hopes of being cured by a doctor of such skill. He encounters various people on the way, and fights them, chalking it all up to bad luck. Then he meets up with Sol Badguy. After this, the path splits. In one ending, Axl fights Kliff Undersn and Justice, and then realizes that he's been thrown back in time once again. In the other (more likely) ending, he battles Faust, and then is diagnosed with involuntary timeslipping. Faust blames this on there being an alternate version of Axl in existence.
Guilty Gear XX[]
Axl meets up with I-No, among other people, while wandering about. As is the case with many other characters, I-No is the catalyst that causes the events that follow. In the first ending, he meets up with That Man and finds out from him that Raven is the cause of his timeslipping, and it is implied that Raven is the alternate version of Axl that was diagnosed by Faust. In another, Axl fights with Zappa, and afterward begins to wonder how Megumi is faring. In his third ending, he ends up fighting a future version of himself; he also asks "himself" that if he can return to Megumi, but receives no answer. This allegedly has something to do with actions performed by Axl later on. Perhaps more light will be shed on this in later games. Interestingly, since the three endings have nothing to do with each other, and don't contradict each other in any way, it is entirely possible that they all happened.
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus[]
Axl first battles I-No. Depending on the method of victory, Axl may continue travelling, or he will once again be forced through time, during the first Sacred War, forced to battle Kliff Undersn, Order-Sol and even another version of himself.
Eventually, Axl is confronted by Crow and a copy of Justice, Crow expressing intent to capture Axl. Here players can choose to have Axl flee the scene or stay and fight.
If Axl picks the second choice, he slips through time again into a veritable warzone, running for his life from an army.
Picking the first option has Axl battle the Justice copy, only to slip through time again, this time to his own timeline. Jubilant, Axl sees Megumi and is about to greet her, only to be cruelly flung through time yet again. Axl then reacts with frustration as he tries to get Megumi's attention.
Guilty Gear Xrd[]
Wandering about, Axl ends up once again in a desolate future: Babylon in October 22, 2192. A voice calling himself The Original tells him that, if he wishes to progress further, he must deliver a message to That Man. Axl wonders how he can do that, but shortly time-slips to October 25, 2187, ending up in Bedman's Nightmare Theater. He yells for the old man, but only Bedman shows up and almost kills him. Axl is saved by I-No, who calls him back to 2192 to kill him for knowing about the Original. Axl says he was only told to deliver a message, which I-No agrees to do as it may change this dull future.
Axl realizes she could send him back to 1998, but she sends him to That Man's field inside the Backyard in October 29, 2187 for now. There, I-No takes him to That Man and Axl lets off a string of gibberish that neither he nor I-No understand. However, That Man acknowledges his message.
A week later, Axl decides to find I-No to have her send him back to 1998. Axl finds her on November 15 at Heaven's Edge, when she is tracking down Jack-O' Valentine, but I-No says the past Axl wants to return to "has no recollection of [the current] world". Jack-O' then reveals to Axl and I-No the origin of their powers, and warns that if Axl returns to "his" world, the current one will become another possibility—essentially destroyed.
Depressed due to the unlikelihood of ever finding home, Axl contemplates what to do as both his options feel like discarding something. I-No, shockingly, comforts him, reminiscing about her own past in which she used her powers to change things, but reality became little more than "fiction" she wrote. She tells Axl if he ever feels like leading a more dishonest life, he is free to join her. Sometime later, Sol asks for his help in locating Elphelt Valentine, but Axl says he cannot do it, afraid of his own powers. Axl subsequently meets up with I-No again, and she asks whether he has decided how to use his powers; when he says he is afraid, I-No tells Axl to find his own perspective. To do so, he also asks Bedman his reasons for wanting power.
In the end, Axl chooses to remain in the current timeline and helps defeat Ariels, trying to be a man that Megumi could be proud of. He uses his powers to compress time itself, and gives Sol enough time to use Dragon Install and amplify the Saint Oratorio that merges Jack-O' with Justice, before the cannons of Daryl's fleet can destroy them.
Guilty Gear -Strive-[]
Following his decision to stay in the current world, Axl is looks for a way to live in it without looking back on the past. Having learned to control his powers, Axl realizes that he could trade places with Megumi to bring her to the current world at his own expense. While thinking of her, Axl finds himself at a marketplace in L'oro Di Illyria when he 'feels' that something bad is gonna happen there. Visiting the same spot every day on December 2187, a merchant tells him that those in search of their past simply have "forgotten how to look for" a new path for themselves, and advises him not to get stuck in the past when there is a lot to see in the present. However, their conversation is interrupted by another 'premonition' where he sees Happy Chaos, who claims hasn't seen Axl since 2192.
Rattled, Axl seeks Sol out, and warns him and Jack-O'—who are on the highway to L'oro Di Illyria—that something bad is about to happen. Soon enough, Chaos destroys a building to free Nagoriyuki, but Axl saves everyone inside by stopping time at the moment of its explosion. Teleporting the rescuees to a coast nearby, he attracts I-No's attention, who dares him to erase her. Axl tells her if she keeps up like this, she will never remember how to see her path, then teleports away with the victims.
After I-No ascends to godhood during the G4 Summit and fights Ky Kiske, Axl saves Ky and tries to talk sense into her, not wanting to fight her. Recalling what she said about people having to find their own right to keep living, Axl says that people carve a happy memory into themselves so that they can remember it at the end of their lives. They are soon interrupted by Jack-O', who wishes to sacrifice herself to make I-No human. However, Sol convinces her not to do it, and has Ky distracts I-No—backed up by Axl, who steals Marlene from her—until he hits I-No's weak point with the Outrage thanks to Nagoriyuki. Axl implores her to remember something, anything, his tears jogging her memory as she (seemingly) dies. With the crisis averted, Axl finds himself alone in a park. Megumi then appears, relaying a message from I-No: "I'm giving you my unfair way of life. You asked for this."
Abilities[]
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Axl saves everyone inside the building by stopping time at the moment of its explosion.
Ever since childhood, Axl has had unusual martial arts prowess, and with his favorite weapon, the dual chain sickle, it is said that not even bullets are a threat to him thanks to his innate superhuman reflexes making him exceptionally agile. Axl has also taught himself magic, having mastered the ability to manipulate fire,although it is unknown when he acquired this skill prior to the tournament. He is also able to wrap his opponent in his bandanna, which expands to fit the victim.
A reluctant time-traveler, Axl is a "causal anomaly" who is able to disrupt the linear timeline most people perceive. Axl thought of his "time-slipping" affliction as traveling through the space-time continuum via random accidents, but it is his subconscious controlling them. In fact, Axl has the same abilities as I-No regarding meddling with causality, their existence being described by himself as the "axes of time", as all the irregular laws applied to her were also applied to him after their IDs overlapped. He has no past or future, and has been presumably rendered ageless.
Only after he learns the truth from Jack-O', Axl gains some semblance of control over this power, learning fast thanks to his intuition. Theoretically, he can travel to "any" world he wishes, but choosing timelines can turn others into possibilities, thus destroying them. At will, Axl can exit to and from That Man's field in the Backyard, or even Bedman's dream realm. He can also call people to any time he wishes, but he has yet to demonstrate this. Axl has, though, shown the ability to compress time in a given area, in which everything that occurs there happens in an instant for the rest of the world. He could change the moon's position if he wished, like I-No, but he lacks the magical and physics knowledge to do so.
References and Allusions[]
- Axl owes his name to Guns'n'Roses leader, who's name is Axl Rose. Even more, it is said they have a similar outlook, and both of them are sort of playboys (Rose once said something like that: "It is a really bad thing to put your girlfriend or your wife into your music video, because when you break up - and you will - they will still be in your video").
- The second half of Axl's name may originate from the band Testament's album named "Low".
- Axl's Guilty Gear theme - "March of the Wicked King" - is named suspiciously similar to "March of the Black Queen" (by Queen), and sounds suspiciously similar to "You're Crazy" by Guns'n'Roses.
- Axl's GGX\GGXX theme - "Make Oneself" - could be an allusion to Incubus' album "Make Yourself".
- At Axl's GGX\GGXX background (London) there is a word "Napalm" written on the wall. It could be yet another allusion to the English band named Napalm Death.
- The english vocal version of "Make Oneself" sounds almost exactly like the song "Even Flow" by the band Pearl Jam in the way the lyrics are sung.
Gallery[]
Images[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- In the official relationship chart, it is stated that Axl knows I-No from the past, and that he has a gang.
- In his third ending in Guilty Gear XX, he will accidentally go back in time to fight with I-No and Sol Badguy again. If Axl cannot finish Sol Badguy using his Instant Kill, the match will be rewinded forever.
- Axl shares the same birthday as Dizzy.
- Axl, as a character, might be a reference to the British TV show Dr. Who, in which a seemingly normal Police Box is used to travel through time and space.
- When Axl performs his Overdrive, Hyakue Renshou, inside the circle his Kusari-gama creates, for a split-second the image of a woman playing a guitar can be seen. This image can also be seen when Axl performs his Benten Gari/Axl Bomber combinatision.
Theme Music[]
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 Heroes
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Guilty Gear Guilty Gear X Guilty Gear XX Guilty Gear XX^ Core Plus Guilty Gear Xrd Guilty Gear -Strive- Other playable Characters Guest Characters Non-Playable Organizations | ||