| “ | My fist is clenched for justice. | „ |
| ~ Potemkin |
Potemkin is a hero from Guilty Gear debuting in the first game. He was a former slave in the empire of Zepp, and was a supporter of the democratic revolution that took place. He is currently a member of Zepp's elite presidential guard.
He was voiced by Hideyuki Anbe in Guilty Gear game series and Takashi Kondou in Guilty Gear X in Japanese and Kirk Thornton in Guilty Gear Xrd and Armen Taylor in Guilty Gear -Strive- in English.
Character Design[]
Potemkin is a dark skin big tall muscular man who wears a red slave bomb collar that is deactivated when he regained his freedom. He has brown hair that he ties up in a ponytail. He also wears red battle gauntlets that he uses in battle. Potemkin's design also has him wearing blue jeans and red toed brown boots. On his left arm he has a barcode tattoo.
In Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Potemkin's design has changed drastically, as he now sports a green body suit with grey spiked shoulder pads. He also wears an armor helmet with decorative orange ponytail, thus his eyes are the only things that are visible as most of his face is covered.
Personality[]
Despite people's assumption regarding his appearance, Potemkin is actually an intelligent and calculating individual who dislikes fighting, only doing it when absolutely necessary and for the sake of others. While Potemkin can withstand pain, he cannot bear to witness the pain of others.
Potemkin is proud, and has a honest heart. He has a kind, gentle character, and great love for nature. He places the utmost importance on ceremony, and loathes superficial behavior or unreasonable demands. Able to meet pressure and adversity head on, Potemkin places great importance in his duty and comrades, and is capable of keeping his patience even when the person he's speaking to isn't being necessarily friendly.
Story[]
Guilty Gear[]
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.
Guilty Gear Xrd[]
In 2187, Potemkin and Gabriel are going over Ramlethal Valentine's status and are considering allying with the United Nations before any kind of confrontation. But first, Potemkin is ordered to scout the area and report back. He encounters Bedman, who is charged with keeping Potemkin away from Ramlethal. After Bedman's "defeat", Potemkin realizes he's been stuck in Bedman's dream world for three days. When he comes to, he is confronted by Ramlethal, who has already put her plan into action. Potemkin defeats her, but the Cradle's been activated. Potemkin laments and wishes he could do something.
In Story Mode, Potemkin makes a brief appearance towards the end of Chapter 5, where he is interrogating Bedman in one of Zepp's holding cells. However, as Bedman is asleep, the endeavor is fruitless before he teleports away.
In the week after, Potemkin is assigned to investigate the Conclave's old hideout: the Opera House. Gabriel senses that Potemkin has lost his ambition, and offers some parting words about being a first rate soldier. He faces off with himself, trying to clear his mind and learning to trust himself more. Then Potemkin runs into Ky Kiske at the Opera House, surprised that the king has come alone. The king needs testimony from Zepp's scientists regarding the Opus along with Zepp's assistance. Potemkin challenges him to a fight, saying he needs to know something.
After the fight, Potemkin reveals that he questioned the limits of his strength after his fight with Bedman. Ky disagrees, and Potemkin admits to overthinking things. Ky is glad that Potemkin came, and says they need hope in the face of an unknown force, which could be achieved by their countries joining forces. Potemkin and Ky shake hands and agree to become that unwavering force of hope. They find Chipp, who thinks the Universal Will may actually be human.
In Story Mode, Potemkin takes part in the battle to defend the Illyrian capital, which has been attacked by massive antimatter Gears and the Phalanx. He works in tandem with Chipp and helps clear a path for Faust, whose injections will prevent the Gears from exploding. The crisis ends when the Illyrian main team defeat Ariels and Justice is fused with Jack-O' Valentine.
Guilty Gear -Strive-[]
When the White House is invaded by Happy Chaos and he activates its aerial Tir na nOg mode, Gabriel contacts Potemkin to help Sol, Vernon, Asuka, and Giovanna, while Daryl was able to propose Chaos to set him and the rest of world's leaders (barring Vernon) free from the now battlefield White House area. Upon his arrival, Potemkin helps to stop the White House from flying straight to Old Mexico, saving it as Sol, Vernon and Asuka were able to get Chaos off the White House.
Just as Ky and Jack-O' arrive and Sol is reverted to his human-self, Frederick, by Asuka, Potemkin patrols from the top of White House airship area. However, when an injured Giovanna arrives, the allies are too late to realize that the "Chaos" they last saw was in fact a high-ranked officer Stryper, while the real Chaos is still inside the White House and had been disguised as new agent Udos after stealing his jacket. Chaos reveals the Tome of Origin had been fusing with Asuka, and uses it to fuse himself with I-No, transporting her to the White House under her now godlike-state. Potemkin, Giovanna and Frederick ignore Asuka's warning to avoid engaging in combat, and were swiftly defeated. Although Frederick, with the help from Vernon and Nagoriyuki, is able to recover and help Ky, Axl, Asuka and Jack-O' against I-No.
In the epilogue, Gabriel congratulates him for accomplishing his mission.
Abilities[]
Due to a unique genetic mutation, Potemkin possesses extraordinary durability, strength and power. Throughout the series, he never exhibits his full strength thanks to a limiter-collar placed upon his body during his slavery. The only time he disengages the limiter is in the alternate timeline from Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Black, where he is capable of devastating entire battalions of Large-Class Gears with merely the shockwaves emanated from his punches. It has been stated that as Potemkin's strength continues to grow, he would eventually have to equip a special limiter that would constrain his entire body in order to regulate his power.
Even with the limiter, with his giant frame and mastery of Zepp-style martial arts, his sheer battle power is comparable to that of an entire ground-based army division and "has been compared to a storm that can demolish mountains", according to his P.W.A.B. report. He is capable of descending from Zepp to ground-level without injury, and is capable of throwing Gears the size of large buildings with relative ease, as shown in -Revelator-. He has been personally mentored by President Gabriel, who in terms of battle prowess is on par with the likes of Slayer.
References & Allusions[]
- Maybe Potemkin's name comes from the Soviet Battleship Potemkin.
- His attack "Hammer Fall" references Swedish power metal band HammerfFall.
- His Instant Kill "Nuclear Hammer" may be a longshot reference to the song "Neutron Hammer" by Australian black metal band Spear of Longinus.
Gallery[]
Images[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- If one listens closely to Potemkin's Guilty Gear XX stage theme and looks closely at his fighting stance, he is actually moving to the beat of his own theme.
- In Potemkin's ending for Guilty Gear, when he removes his slave neck collar, his ponytail reaches down his back. In later artworks and sprites, his ponytail is cut so short that it doesn't reach the back of his neck.
- In Guilty Gear X and XX, Potemkin's theme sounds very similar to Led Zeppelin's Kashmir for a few brief seconds. Midway through, it also sounds a bit like Toto's Hold the Line for another few seconds as well.
- One of Faust's Special Moves (What's Next?) and its Overdrive version (Super What's Next?) involves Faust dropping small-sized dolls of some characters. Potemkin is one of these characters.
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 | ||