| “ | No matter what... the world needs justice. | „ |
| ~ Ky Kiske |
Ky Kiske is the deuteragonist and the eternal rival, Sol Badguy. He is one of the most well-known characters, and has been an integral part of the series since the first Guilty Gear. He is a very charismatic young man who possesses a strong sense of justice and a devout religiosity, which sustain and guide him through all manner of shaking uncertainties.
He was voiced by Takeshi Kusao in the Japanese version, and by Liam O'Brien in Guilty Gear 2: Overture and Sam Riegel in Guilty Gear Xrd: -SIGN-.
Personality[]
Ky is described as a compassionate, kind-hearted, strong-willed and a deeply religious man who has strong beliefs in God, also has strong dedication of honor, of right, law and order. He is diligent and scrupulous. However, despite his great faith and strong conviction, he is not beyond doubt, and is not entirely incapable of seeing the colors between black and white.
Loyal to his ideas more than his surroundings, Ky will not hesitate to investigate his superiors if he believes them to be undermining his conceptions of justice. He is a compassionate man and chivalrous in the classical way, being known to hold back against female opponents if he is forced to fight them. Though his strong beliefs tend to color his moral world black and white, his experiences have developed his character beyond this caricature.
In his Overture profile, it is stated that his position as a king made him lose some of his zeal, but he gains a new perspective over things in its place.
Biography[]
Ky Kiske is Sol's rival as well as the former Holy Knight who is now a high ranking officer of the International Police Force. Ky is a firm believer in God and justice at all times. This was bad early in the story since his scale of morality consisted exclusively of black and white without shades of grey. Fortunately, by the end of XX he dropped this naive view. His weapon is the Thunderseal, which allows him to manipulate electricity. Throughout the series he is on orders from the IPF to investigate the Gear phenomena that are occurring around the world. In XX he finds out about the Post-War Administration Bureau and decides to investigate into their agenda. He discovers that they are creating robot impersonators of himself and have a dastardly agenda regarding the Gears, especially Dizzy.
In his Accent Core + story, Ky continues to investigate the PWAB, noticing that others have started to take an interest in their agenda as well. Eventually, he reunites with Dizzy and stops her when she loses control of her power due to stress. Johnny thanks him and both of them team up, with Dizzy in tow, to fight Crow and his Justice clone.
This is the fork in the road for the two ending paths. If Ky decides to handle things alone, then he, Johnny, and Dizzy will come to an agreement that allows Dizzy to be placed in Ky's protective custody, allowing her to fulfill her dreams of learning about the world. This is likely the canon path with the story of Overture taken into consideration. However, if Ky lets Johnny settle his grudge with Crow, he will stray from the path and accidentally encounter A.B.A, defeating her before the base explodes. One month later, he continues his work, with even more burdens on his mind due to the connections between the Bureau and the IPF.
In Overture he is unwillingly "promoted" to the king of a country called Illyria by the United Nations, using his secret wife's wellbeing as an incentive to accept the position. He is unofficially married to a woman known only as "The Maiden of the Grove", who was confirmed to be Dizzy in the 10th Memorial Book, and is the father of Sin, with whom he has a shaky relationship. If all that wasn't stressful enough for him, when Dizzy had begun to fade from existence, Ky was forced to sacrifice his Thunderseal sword in order to save her. He wielded a different sword called "Aquila", which, while originally just for decoration, was modified by Ky to be usable in battle.
In Xrd, Ky continues acting as one of Illyria's three kings, secretly prying into what the people who forced the position onto him, the Conclave, are up to, while also dealing with the impending threat on the world placed by Ramlethal Valetntine. Over the course of the story, he begins to slowly learn more about Sol's past when it becomes apparent that he is a key player in the events that are transpiring, sympathizing with his situation but also trying to help his longtime rival move forward instead of continuing his cycle of guilt and self-loathing. Eventually, his own family issues with Sin begin to mend once Dizzy is finally awakened from her induced hibernation, as well as hilariously increase once some dots are finally connected. On top of all of this, it's also revealed during a near-fatal encounter with one of the Conclave members that, at some point after his relationship with Dizzy began but through as-of-yet unknown means, he became a human-Gear hybrid. He wields a new sword named "Magnolia Eclair" created from parts of his original Thunderseal sword.
Powers & Abilities[]
Ky Kiske is an extremely talented strategist, swordsman, and magic practitioner. In the novel Lightning the Argent, it is revealed that his ability to create lightning projectiles from his sword Thunderseal is extraordinarily difficult, as lightning is the most difficult magic to control, a testament to his mastery of the weapon. It is also said that he is well adept at performing other forms of elemental magic, though he prefers to use lightning. In Guilty Gear Vastedge XT, it is also revealed that he is an expert marksman, as he is seen wielding a lightning-charged gunblade.
Ironically in Xrd, his left eye becomes red, with a Gear symbol inscribed on the iris. It is unknown if he's either a human implanted with Gear Cells, or if he performed an experiment on himself to give him Gear-like qualities. When he activates the Gear Eye, it vastly increases his strength, speed, durability and magic to supernatural levels. He can regenerate fatal wounds in mere seconds and using raw strength in this state, He was able to prevent the titanic Justice from falling from the sky - as well as the small island of stone she rested on -. His lightning magic also intensifies greatly and takes on a violet hue. However, he can only maintain this state for short intervals and it seems to cause pain afterwards.
Ky has also discovered that one of Thunderseal's hidden abilities is to isolate a person or object within a selective space where time has stopped. However, Ky discovered this power out of desperation to save Dizzy from sublimation and does not know how he performed such a feat.
References & Allusions[]
- Ky owes his name to the two musicians of Germany's Power Metal scene - Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen, former Helloween members.
- Ky's theme name - Holy Orders (Be Just or Be Dead) - probably origins from Iron Maiden's song "Be Quick or Be Dead".
- Ky's overdrive is named Ride the Lightning, and one of Metallica's albums has the same name.
- Ky's Instant Kill is named Rising Force— an allusion to the Swedish rocker Yngwie J. Malmsteen's former band of the same name.
- Rhapsody, a band that is quite popular in Japan, has a song named "Holy Thunderforce", which could be another description of him.
- The "HOPE" inscription on his belt is probably taken from a lyric in the Iron Maiden Song "Revelations":
- Bind all of us together
- Ablaze with hope and free,
- No storm or heavy weather
- Will rock the boat you'll see.
Gallery[]
Images[]
Other Appearance[]
Videos[]
Merchandise[]
Trivia[]
- Ky appears as a guest character in Square Enix's upcoming game, Lord of Vermilion III.
- Ky's exact age is never revealed, but various hints can determine the range. He's at least 21 years old in the first game and at least 26 in Overture.
- Ky was wearing an eye-patch like Sin in his short story, though on his left eye instead of his right. The significance of this is unknown, but in Xrd, he has a sigil in his left eye which is similar to a Gear's Mark. It is believed that he may been participated in an experiment to acquire these qualities.
- Ky has more themes than any other character; he shares six songs with Sol, one with Order-Sol and one with his own son, Sin, making a total of eight rivalry songs.
- One of Ky's shouts during battle is "kokoda", meaning "here it is". Because of the lack of English dub and translation, however, players always mishear this as "coconuts".
- Besides "coconuts," players always make fun of Ky's phrase in the Guilty Gear X anime trailer: "Oh no! I'm falling!"
- During Ky's Instant Kill (Rising Force), a figure of a woman can be seen curled into the ball of lightning, and then would fly along the projectile. Her nature is unknown, though it is hinted that she is connected to the Thunderseal.
- Ky can be seen once in a black outfit in one of the early drafting books.
- In Xrd, if he were to be knocked down during his opponent's match point, his hair will become loose and his original theme, Holy Orders, will begin to play.
- It is revealed in Xrd that no matter the times he cuts his hair, it keeps growing at a rapid pace, thus leading to believe that he also has Gear cells like Dizzy and his son who both share the same trait. As Sin is a Quarter-Gear, this means that this development didn't occur until sometime after Sin's birth.
- Takeshi Kusao, Ky's voice actor, is known for voicing heroic young men using swords, such as Cless Alvein from Tales of Phantasia.
- Tales' character, Flynn Scifo is based on Ky, considered that Ky's English voice actor is Sam Riegel, who also voices Flynn in English.
- Ky's Blazblue counterpart is Jin Kisaragi. Both characters are blonde, orphaned as children, were considered prodigies and attained high ranks within a military organization as teenagers, and became hailed as famous war heroes for their efforts. Both also received powerful magical swords (the Thundersealed Sword and Yukianesa) during times of war. However, they differ significantly in terms of personality. While Ky emphasizes honor, camaraderie, and idealism, Jin outwardly disdains such notions, holding a pragmatic view about battle and war, and seemingly doesn't value the idea of comrades or friendship(instead perceiving such concepts as ridiculous). Also, while both have weapons that are heavily implied to be sentient, Thunderseal has never attempted to manipulate Ky and in the single instance that it acted on its own accord, it used its power to prevent Dizzy's death by placing her in a magical time seal , implying that its nature may benevolent. Whereas Yukianesa has deeply influenced Jin's psyche and encouraged homicidal tendencies within him, such as coercing him to kill Ragna on several occasions as well as any who would pose an obstacle to his goals, whether they are friend or foe.
Theme Music[]
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